A dog in France has monkeypox, worrying scientists that we won’t be able to eradicate the virus if it spreads to more animals

In 2003, 47 people in six Midwestern states caught monkeypox from pet prairie dogs that became infected after being kept with rodents imported from Ghana, Africa.

Today’s outbreak, which has already infected more than 14,100 people in the US and more than 41,000 worldwide, is spreading mostly through close human contact between gay and bisexual men. But scientists this month reported the first human-to-pet transmission in a dog in France, prompting US and global health officials to warn to ensure the virus does not spread to other pets and animals.

The recommendation stems from concerns that monkeypox may spread to populations of wildlife or rodents as human outbreaks increase, allowing the virus to move back and forth between humans and animals and give the virus a permanent foothold in those countries. where it has historically not aired. ,

Before the global outbreak this year, monkeypox spread mainly in remote parts of West and Central Africa, where people caught the virus after coming into contact with infected animals. The 2003 outbreak, which was contained, was the first documented case of the virus being caught by humans outside Africa.

The current global outbreak differs dramatically from previous patterns of transmission. Monkeypox is now spread almost entirely through close physical contact between people in major urban areas in the Americas, European countries and Brazil.

But the first estimated case of people infecting an animal in the current outbreak was reported in France this month. A pet dog tested positive for the virus after a couple in Paris fell ill with monkeypox and shared their bed with the animal.

WHO officials have said that a single incident of a pet catching the virus is not surprising or cause for great concern, but there is a risk that if people are not aware they can infect other species, animals may become infected. Monkeypox may begin to spread in

If monkeypox becomes established in animal populations outside Africa, the virus will have more opportunities to mutate, leading to higher transmission potential and risk of severity. The animals could then potentially pass the virus to people, increasing the risk of future spread.

Dr Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme, said during a press conference in Geneva last week, “What we don’t want to see is the disease passing from one species to another and then remaining in that species.” Is.” , “It’s through that process of one animal influencing the next and the next and the next that you see the rapid evolution of the virus.”

Agency spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had received no reports of pets infected with monkeypox in the US. But according to the CDC, the virus can spread from people to animals or from animals to people.

“While we are still learning which species of animal can get monkeypox, we must assume that any mammal can be infected with the monkeypox virus,” Nordlund said. “We don’t know whether reptiles, amphibians, or birds can get monkeypox, but this is unlikely because these animals have not been found to be infected with the virus in the same family as monkeypox.”

WHO’s chief monkeypox expert Dr. Rosamund Lewis said it is important to properly dispose of potentially contaminated waste to avoid the risk of infecting rodents and other animals when they rummage through the waste.

“While these have all been hypothetical risks, we believe they are important enough that people should be aware of how to protect their pets, as well as how to manage their waste, to avoid the risk of animal monkeypox in general.” Don’t come into contact with the virus,” Lewis said.

Ryan said that while vigilance is important, animals and pets do not represent a risk to people at the present time.

“It is important that we do not allow these viruses to establish themselves in other animal populations,” Ryan said. “Especially in animals a single exposure or single infection is not unexpected.”

Although scientists have done some research on monkeypox in Africa, where it has historically circulated, their work was limited due to lack of funding. So scientists do not know how many different species of animals can carry the virus and transmit it to humans.

Scientists have separated monkeypox from wild animals only a few times in Africa over the past 40 years. They included rope squirrels, target rats and giant pouched rats in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as two types of monkeys in Cte d’Ivoire. Rodents, not monkeys, are thought to be the host animal population in Africa, although the exact animal reservoir is unknown.

Public health officials do not know whether types of animals in the US close to people in urban settings — raccoons, rats and mice — can pick up and transmit the virus. According to the CDC, some types of mice and rats can get monkeypox, but not all species are susceptible.

“We know this is a virus that spreads from rodents in West Africa,” said Dr., an infectious disease specialist at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. Peter Hotez said. “Whether rats or other rodents in an urban environment means it’s going to have a foothold there and it also becomes a permanent fixture – we don’t want that,” he said.

The CDC recommends that people who have monkeypox avoid contact with animals — pets, livestock, household enemas and wildlife. If a pet becomes ill within 21 days of coming into contact with a person with monkeypox, the animal should be evaluated by a veterinarian.

According to the CDC, waste contaminated with monkeypox should go in a lined, dedicated trash can and not be left outside because wildlife can potentially be exposed to the virus.

In the 2003 outbreak, CDC was able to quickly administer vaccines and quarantine patients before the virus spread further. There was no case of monkeypox spreading among people. The CDC then banned the importation of rodents from Africa.

Containing the 2003 outbreak, Gambian rats and other rodents imported from Ghana took 10,000 hours to detect the virus at an animal distributor in Texas, according to Marguerite Pappiano, a former CDC official who Worked on the outbreak.

In the wake of the 2003 outbreak, the Food and Drug Administration banned the importation of all African rodents. The agency also prohibited the interstate distribution of prairie dogs and worries their release into the wild could establish monkeypox in wildlife populations.

The US Geological Survey and the Department of Agriculture later trapped 200 wild animals in Wisconsin at sites where humans had contracted monkeypox from domesticated prairie dogs. They found no evidence that the virus had spread to wild animals, and the FDA lifted a ban on distributing prairie dogs between states. It is still illegal to import rodents from Africa.

Scientists in California this summer detected monkeypox DNA in sewage samples. New York is also monitoring wastewater for the virus, according to the state health department, although the results have yet to be released publicly. Findings from wastewater in California have raised concerns among some health experts that the virus could be infecting rodents through sewage.

An infectious disease specialist at the Global Center for Health Security at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Dr. James Lawler said, “There is a risk because of the widespread nature of the infection and the fact that it is sewage and wastewater.” “It’s a concern, about joining an animal population and being a zoonotic risk reservoir and honestly, if that’s the case I think it’s game over for us.”

But it is not clear whether the live virus is present in the wastewater. According to Marlene Wolff, a scientist at Emory University working on the project, the study measured monkeypox DNA in sewage samples, noting whether the virus was still infectious.

Most urban areas have treated wastewater, so the virus is less likely to survive and replicate in such environments, according to Amira Roes, a former official with the CDC’s Epidemiological Intelligence Service. Roess said garbage that contains contaminated materials such as bedsheets or towels poses a greater risk than wastewater.

“There are wildlife species that rummage in your trash and then they are more likely to pick up viruses that are able to replicate. “There are a lot of IFs, but it happens,” said Ross, who is now a professor of epidemiology. are George Mason University.

According to Richard Reithinger, an epidemiologist at RTI International, several steps will have to be taken for the monkey virus to spread from humans to animals and then to people.

Rethinger said the virus would have to be transmitted in an animal population with a wide geographic distribution, but the species would not have such a mortality rate that the train of transmission would be snuffed out. Humans will also need some level of regular contact with animals.

“Each stage has a certain probability. Once you sum up all the probabilities of these stages, the probability actually drops significantly,” Reithinger said.

It’s also possible that some sort of viral mutation may have caused monkeypox to be transmitted more efficiently between people in the current outbreak, Rosse said. He said that if the virus has adapted to humans, it may be more difficult for people to pass the disease to animals. According to Pappiano, it also depends on what kind of animal is exposed to the virus.

“Not all animals are susceptible. We don’t even know which are which,” said Pappiano, now an affiliated professor at the University of Washington.

Although the risk of the virus entering US animal populations and causing future human outbreaks is low, a more robust surveillance system is needed to prepare the US for such a possibility, according to Pappiano and Roes. . Former CDC officials said there are large gaps in the ability of public health agencies to monitor animal populations for infectious diseases.

“It’s a huge difference. We don’t have a good monitoring system for humans,” Ross said. “For wildlife, it depends on which pathogen is of interest and whether they are able to fund someone to monitor. A lot of our surveillance is really sporadic”

Pappiano said livestock such as cows, sheep and poultry are monitored by the Department of Agriculture. But wildlife surveillance is low and while monitoring these animals for infectious disease requires a tremendous amount of work, there is no government agency to monitor the health of dogs and cats overseas, she said. He said local health departments can monitor rodents and carry out population control programs, but this also requires funding and significant staffing.

“More and more people around the world are moving to cities,” Pappiano said. “What would it mean for a highly urbanized city to be a reservoir of infection? We don’t know the answer.”