Monkey pox: infected patients should avoid contact with their pets

As more than 200 cases of monkeypox have been recorded in Europe, the UK Health Safety Agency (UKHSA) has advised people with monkeypox to avoid contact with their pets for 21 days.

Given the rapid rise in cases around the world, health authorities have been keen to assess the risk posed by pets exposed to the virus, to people they may come into contact with.

Rodents singled out

According to the UK agency, gerbils, guinea pigs, rats, mice, hamsters and other rodents may be able to catch and spread the disease more easily than humans.

“It is unlikely – but cannot be excluded – that an infected pet rodent could transmit the infection to peridomestic or wild rodents”, explains the UKHSA. However, rodents could not show any clinical signs of infection. “Since their incubation period is unknown, testing for the presence of antibodies and viruses would rule out infection.”, adds the British agency.

Uninfected human contacts or peridomestic or wild rodents in contact with infected domestic rodents would be at risk of contracting the disease. For the moment, no cases have been detected in pets and the risk remains low.

Rodent isolation

The European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) recommends isolating pet rodents in homes where there are people with monkeypox, for 21 days. To exclude infection, screening tests can be carried out, especially if infected owners have had direct and prolonged contact with the animal or its litter.

Other pets, such as dogs and cats, should also be placed in home isolation and undergo regular veterinary checks for “ensure that no clinical signs are observed”.

According to the ECDC, pet rodents should ideally be isolated in supervised facilities, observing the following rules:

• Respiratory isolation conditions (e.g. a laboratory);
• Animal welfare: at government facilities, kennels, or animal welfare organizations;
• Submitting to an exposure screening PCR test before the end of the quarantine.

“Euthanasia should only be a last resort reserved for situations where testing and/or isolation is not feasible”says the health agency.

Other pets should also be placed in isolation at home “if animal welfare conditions permit: availability of an enclosed outdoor space for dogs, regular veterinary checks for dogs, regular veterinary checks to assess the state of health, prohibition of access to visitors or even prohibition of pets to leave the home”.

A risk of spreading the disease

Although scientists say little is known about the behavior of monkeypox in the domestic animal population at this time, the risk of spreading the virus on a human scale is to be considered.

“If you are not careful, you could create an animal reservoir for the disease which could result in its spread to humans, and we would be in an infection loop” warns Professor Lawrence Young, virologist at the University of Warwick, interviewed by BBC News.

The ECDC indicates that a “overflow” outbreak, where a human infects a pet, could potentially lead to the virus becoming established in European wildlife. The risk ? Monkeypox would become an endemic zoonosis, a disease that jumps from one animal species to another, constantly present in this new population – although the risk is “very weak” for ECDC.

According to the European body, public health authorities will have to work with veterinary authorities to ensure the quarantine and screening of pets that have been exposed or are at risk of being exposed.