In a new discovery related to the novel coronavirus, scientists say they have now discovered that a new COVID-19 strain originated in dogs, has infected some people - the bulk of them children. If the study is proved to be correct, this will be the eighth such virus, known to man, to jump from animals to humans - the first one to come from a dog.
According to a report in Mirror.co.uk, the virus strain is not thought to be a pandemic risk as of now and everyone who tested positive for it has also recovered.
However, experts say that a study in Clinical Infectious Diseases could help prevent future outbreaks. Reports state that coronaviruses will become more frequent as humans will have more contact with wildlife due to habitat destruction and climate change.
Speaking about the same, co-author Dr Anastasia Vlasova, of The Ohio State University, said, "At this point, we don't see any reasons to expect another pandemic from this virus. But I can't say that's never going to be a concern."
Meanwhile, project leader Professor Gregory Gray, of Duke University, North Carolina, said, "How common this virus is, and whether it can be transmitted efficiently from dogs to humans or between humans, nobody knows. What is more important is these coronaviruses are likely spilling over to humans from animals much more frequently than we know. We are missing them because most hospital diagnostic tests only pick up known human coronaviruses."
As for the US team, they recognized the novel canine coronavirus using a molecular diagnostic tool they created last year to detect COVID-19. During the study, Gregory Gray analysed the archived nasal swabs of 301 people treated in a hospital in Sarawak in East Malaysia in 2018.
Eight of the patients, all but one of them children, were found to have been infected with the new coronavirus - named CCoV-HuPn-2018. Gray said, "There are probably multiple canine coronaviruses circulating and spilling over into humans that we don't know about."
The researchers plan to further study the CCoV-HuPn-2018 virus to determine how harmful it is, or could, become, to people. It is not known right now if the virus can be passed from person to person, or how well the human immune system can fight it off.
Co-author Dr Anastasia Vlasova said, "We don't really have evidence right now that this virus can cause severe illness in adults."
