With the recent Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has come a sense of mass panic. People have been buying up supplies leaving store shelves empty, frantically washing their hands, and even going to the extents of self-isolation. But one thing no one has considered is how pests can affect you during this pandemic.
Scientists declared that the virus outbreak started in a meat market in the city of Wuhan, China. It has been theorised that the virus came from either bats or snakes originally but the official source has not been confirmed.
COVID-19 is a strain of the Coronavirus, but what does this mean? “Coronavirus” is the name of a flu-like disease that can spread between animals and humans, usually it’s not so dangerous but the COVID-19 strain has proved to be much more infectious than the strains we already knew meaning that although the severity of the disease is the same, it can infect more people than ever before.
Prior to the outbreak scientists had already been studying other strains of Coronavirus and found that they can infect mice, rats, dogs, cats, turkeys, horses, pigs, and cattle. It has also been observed that these animals can spread the virus to humans once they have become infected.
As this particular illness can be spread between animals and humans it’s important to not only ensure you have minimal contact with infected people, but infected animals as well. If you have an infestation of rats, mice, even pigeons, then you may be putting yourself at an unnecessary risk.
If you have any pets in your home they may be at risk too- the first case of confirmed human to animal transition of the Coronavirus was confirmed in Hong Kong. A lady in her 60’s was hospitalised with the disease and her Pomeranian was placed under quarantine after testing “weak positive” for the virus from a nasal and oral swab. Since then the World Health Organisation (WHO) have announced that it’s very unlikely that your pets will contract this particular strain (COVID-19) and they won’t suffer from many symptoms if they do.
Rodents and pigeons could be very prone to contracting the disease and spreading it elsewhere as they often forage for food through our bins. The disease can spread through people’s saliva and so any food waste, used tissues, or even plastic bottles could host the virus and transmit it to a pest when they come into contact. These pests would then continue to spread the disease around the world
