Dog face mask sales spike during deadly coronavirus outbreak. But can pets catch it?
People around the world are taking extreme measures to prevent the spread of the deadly new coronavirus strain, and some of those measures extend to pets.
The owner of k9 Mask — a company in Austin, Texas, that creates muzzle-shaped masks to protect dogs from dust, smoke and bacteria — said sales of its $55 protective gear jumped 300 percent as customers in China, the United States, Australia and Japan have ordered them amid the growing health scare, FOX Business reports.
“Customers have been calling in saying we want to know if your mask will provide protection against the coronavirus,” owner Kirby Holmes said, according to FOX Business. “We can’t 100 percent guarantee that it will protect your pet, all we can say is the filters were designed using the exact recommendation the CDC suggests for humans to wear to protect against bacteria.”
But according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people should not be concerned about domestic pets spreading the strain (2019-nCoV) back and forth.
“While this virus seems to have emerged from an animal source, it is now spreading from person-to-person,” CDC officials said. “CDC recommends that people traveling to China avoid animals both live and dead, but there is no reason to think that any animals or pets in the United States might be a source of infection with this new coronavirus.”
On Thursday, the World Health Organization formally declared the respiratory virus a public health emergency of international concern.
“The main reason for this declaration is not because of what is happening in China, but because of what is happening in other countries,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO. “Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems, and which are ill-prepared to deal with it.”
Ghebreyesus added that there are now 98 cases in 18 countries beyond China, including eight instances of human-to-human infection in four countries: the U.S., Japan, Germany and Vietnam. There are currently 7,834 confirmed cases — 7,736 of them, or nearly 99 percent, in China.
Ghebreyesus also said that “170 people have lost their lives to this outbreak, all of them in China.”
Still, pet owners who are sick should avoid pets, according to the CDC.
“Do not handle pets or other animals while sick. Although there have not been reports of pets or other animals becoming sick with 2019-nCoV, several types of coronaviruses can cause illness in animals and spread between animals and people,” the CDC said. “Until we know more, avoid contact with animals and wear a face mask if you must be around animals or care for a pet.”
This strain of the coronavirus jumped from animals to humans, according to experts.
“The virus enters the human population through mammals, usually bats, and the animals that get it in china don’t even exist in the U.S. We don’t have any information of the coronavirus being a problem for dogs,” said Dr. Christopher Ohl, an infectious disease doctor at Wake Forest Baptist Health North Carolina, according to FOX Business. “Pet owners can be reassured that dogs really don’t get it and the virus isn’t around for them to be exposed to.”
EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak said animals can infect different species with the virus if there are similar receptors on the outside of that species cells, according to the Mercury News.
“If an animal virus can bind to a human cell receptor, it makes us sick,” the Mercury News reported. “That’s probably what’s behind the current outbreak; we share similar cell receptors with bats, known carriers of the new virus.”
So what about dogs and cats?
According to the Mercury News, “cats, dogs and humans are just too different [from humans]. There have been no reported cases of pets getting the new human virus. And there don’t seem to be any cases of people giving the human virus to their pets.”
Wearing a surgical mask might not do much to prevent the virus from spreading anyway, experts said.
“We worry about people feeling they’re getting more protection from the mask than they really are,” said Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, chair of the public health committee for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, according to the New York Times. “Washing your hands and avoiding people who are ill is way more important than wearing a mask.”
People also use the masks incorrectly, or leave them poorly fitted with gaps that let in the droplets in the air that spread the virus, the Times reported.
“Most people will put their hand underneath the mask to scratch their face or rub their nose,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease doctor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, per the Times. “You can’t take it off when you get a phone call.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 4:11 PM with the headline "Dog face mask sales spike during deadly coronavirus outbreak. But can pets catch it?."
