Dog tests positive for CCP virus for first time in US

Zachary Stieber

The Epoch Times

A pug named Winston has tested positive for the CCP virus, the virus which causes COVID-19. The dog is the first known K-9 infection of COVID-19 in the United States.

Several dogs in other countries have tested positive for the virus, Winston, appears to be the first in the United States to contract the virus.

Duke University researchers are conducting a study on COVID-19. During the course of the study, the dog was tested and results came back positive, Dr. Chris Woods, the principal investigator, told WRAL.

Woods didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

The mother, father and son of the family that owns Winston all tested positive for COVID-19.

Heather McLean, a pediatrician at Duke, told WRAL that the pug started showing mild symptoms, including loss of appetite.

“Pugs are a little unusual in that they cough and sneeze in a very strange way. So it almost seems like he was gagging, and there was one day when he didn’t want to eat his breakfast, and if you know pugs you know they love to eat, so that seemed very unusual,” she said.

Ben McLean, the son, said it makes sense because the dog licks the family’s dinner plates and sleeps in his mother’s bed.

The family’s other pets, another dog and a cat, tested negative for the CCP virus.

Two pet cats tested positive for the virus in New York, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Department of Agriculture said recently. They were the first pets to test positive in the country.

A cat tested positive for the CCP virus in Belgium in March while several dogs have had confirmed cases, primarily in Hong Kong. Lions and tigers in New York have also tested positive.

No cases of pet to human transmission of the virus have been confirmed, but authorities said people can spread the illness to their pets.

The CDC said in updated guidelines that “there is no evidence that animals play a significant role in spreading the virus that causes COVID-19,” but cautioned pet owners to treat pets like humans in terms of keeping them socially distant from people or animals from outside the household.

If a person in the house gets sick, they should be isolated from pets in addition to people.

Reprinted with permission of The Epoch Times.