Coronavirus and Your Dog - are they at risk (or a risk to you)?
Like 3 Dislike 0 Published on 18 Mar 2020
The dog had been in isolation for 17 days having repeatedly tested weak positive for the presence of virus. Only a few days ago, however, antibody blood tests results had returned as negative, and the dog had been allowed to go back home.
BREAKING NEWS: The elderly Pomeranian that was felt to be the first confirmed case in a dog of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, has now died.
Antibodies are proteins that are produced as part of the body’s immune response to an infection. This result does not rule out infection completely, rather that “there is not a strong immune response and that there are currently not measurable amounts of antibodies in the blood”.
The reason that this doesn’t rule out infection is that antibodies can take some time to reach detectible levels, often 14 days or more. Also, high levels of antibodies may not be produced in mild or asymptomatic cases of infection.
The dog was 17 years old, and it is not clear if there were any pre-existing health conditions (liokely given the advanced age), nor what the circumstances were surrounding the death. Unfortunately, in a statement from the Hong Kong Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department: “the owner said she was not willing to [allow] an autopsy to examine the cause of death”.
Given the negative blood test results, it is highly unlikely that COVID-19 itself played a role in this death. There will, unfortunately, always be a question mark over this - especially given a lack of post-mortem autopsy examination.
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