SARS-CoV-2 transmission to animals: monitoring needed to mitigate risk

As evidence mounts for the possibility of SARS-CoV-2 infecting various animals, scientists at UCL say a global effort is needed to reduce the risk of the virus later returning to people. In a comment piece for The Lancet Microbe , researchers write that if the virus becomes common in an animal population that lives near people, such as pets or livestock, there would be a risk that another outbreak could occur even if the virus is eradicated in people in the area. The authors call for more research into which animals are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the Covid-19 disease, and suggest implementing surveillance programmes to regularly test animals that could pose the highest risks of transmission. Co-author Professor Joanne Santini (UCL Structural & Molecular Biology) said: "There is increasing evidence that some animals can catch SARS-CoV-2 from people, and might subsequently transmit it to other people - but we don't know just how much of a risk this is, as it's an area of study that has not yet been prioritised. "We need to develop surveillance strategies to ensure we don't get taken by surprise by a large outbreak in animals, which could pose a threat not just to animal health but to human health as well. "Virus transmission in animal populations could become irreversible if left unchecked, and may threaten the success of existing public health measures if people continue to catch the virus from an infected population of animals." The authors write that the immense scale of the Covid-19 pandemic compounds the possibility of sufficient animals becoming 'reservoirs' of the virus, which could be more likely than for past epidemics, such as the more contained SARS-CoV-1 outbreak in 2002-2003.