COVID-19: Do not target stray dogs

“Stray dogs may have played role in novel coronavirus origin: study” was the title flashed across several newspapers some days ago. The reports referred to a scientific publication by Xuhua Xi of the University of Ottawa, Canada, in the Journal of Molecular Biology and Evolution. This has caused anguish amongst animal welfare organisations and pet parents across the world.

To add to the anguish, the news report titles suggested ‘stray dogs,’ potentially inciting people to target helpless stray dogs. The title used cannot be much farther from the truth. The actual title of the journal publication was “Extreme genomic CpG deficiency in SARS-CoV-2 and evasion of host antiviral defense”. The author has referred to ‘feral’ animals – in this instance Canids, a word that is used deliberately to refer to a class of wild animals such as wolves, jackals, foxes, coyotes and others which belong to this class. Yes, the author also suggested the importance of monitoring coronavirus in ‘feral dogs’! The word ‘stray’ does not appear in the entire 23-page journal article.

The public, and most important journalists, must know the difference between ‘ferals’ and ‘strays’. To make things worse, the news articles were accompanied by pictures of stray dogs normally found on our streets. This is misleading and may trigger violence against these voiceless animals.

Electron microscopic in size, but huge on impact, the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has dashed in, challenging our way of living, our disregard of the air, rivers, oceans, forests, valleys and significantly, of the animals. None of the human divisions or borders could stop it, reminding us that it has got to be a level playing field -- religion, nationalities, ethnicity, castes, language, ideology, politics, economy, it’s all rubbish in the face of what nature has evolved over eternity. Animals are the closest of all creations to humans, yet humans disregard and threaten the existence of animals. Why not get to know them -- their diseases and concerns, their happiness, their future, their benevolence, their way of dealing with any situation? Their health is our health in the common environment we are all part of. Together we can collaborate and attend to other creations of nature. Animals actually shield us from many hazards and diseases (called zoonotic diseases), keeping them away from humans. They are smart, kind, caring and loving. Yet, they are vehemently ignored and continuously put under pressure for their own existence, triggering a discourteous signal in the form of coronavirus, a serious example to alert us, humans.

Let the current crisis not go waste. We must have a One Health program as a major initiative, with several centres around the nation and around the world. Each centre must facilitate attracting experts from the fields of environment, plant health, animal health, human health and other relevant areas. Key officials from the government and funding agencies must be on board from the start. To begin with a) Identifying and mapping of pathogens of all sorts in various animals and humans proximate to each other -- domestic and wild. b) Establishing similarities via comprehensive omics, bioinformatics and evolutionary analyses. c) Working out epidemiology, rate of transmission, speed of infection and, importantly, any chinks there may be in the armour of potential invaders. d) Genome-wide study to figure out how quickly a given virus/pathogen can mutate to attack other hosts -- humans included. e) Development of rapid diagnostic kits. f) Explore opportunities for the development of both therapeutic and prophylactic vaccine measures.

In short, we need a One Health programme to be ready, or at least move towards readiness. This will give us a handle on cures for the pathogens affecting animals and those which may transmit to humans. This is extremely important for both domestic and wild animals that have full rights to be on the level playing field. Please note, this time it is the human-droplet transmission of the invader, without the help of any transmission host (like mosquitoes), which has questioned our way of living! Next time, it can be just transmission by air by a different invader! We better get on with being ready.

(The writer is a biotechnologist and former principal consultant, Department of IT, BT and S&T, Govt of Karnataka)