Vaccinating cats and dogs may be ‘necessary’ in future

In the journal Virulence, they stated that the evolution of the virus in animals followed by transmission to humans ‘poses a significant long-term risk to public health.’

It is not ‘unthinkable that vaccination of some domesticated animal species might be necessary to curb the spread of the infection,’ they stated.

Kevin Tyler, editor-in-chief of Virulence, said: ‘Cats are asymptomatic but they are infected by it and they can infect humans with it.

“The risk is that, as long as there are these reservoirs, that it starts to pass as it did in the mink from animal to animal, and then starts to evolve animal-specific strains, but then they spill back into the human population and you end up essentially with a new virus which is related which causes the whole thing all over again.”

He said that while mink were culled in Denmark, vaccinations may be required for domestic pets.

He said: “It’s not an obvious risk yet.”

Last year, Denmark’s government culled millions of mink after  hundreds of COVID-19 cases in the country were linked with the farmed mink.