Coronavirus: final testing of Hong Kong dog’s blood concludes it was infected

• Antibodies to the virus were found in 17-year-old Pomeranian’s blood proving infection, animal welfare authority says

• Officials say they will continue quarantining pets of confirmed Covid-19 cases, although no evidence they play a role in spreading the virus.

• Final testing has confirmed that the 17-year-old Pomeranian revealed as the first dog to catch the coronavirus was infected because antibodies were found in its blood, according to Hong Kong’s animal welfare authority.

  Despite the conclusive positive reading, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) spokesman stressed that cases of infection in dogs appeared “infrequent”, with most of the city’s quarantined animals testing negative.

The AFCD said that wider checks had revealed dogs and cats were not easily infected and that there was no evidence they could spread the virus to humans or other animals.

But further serological testing was conducted on the blood sample at the World Health Organisation reference laboratory at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the final test result was positive, according to an announcement by the AFCD on Thursday night.

“This indicates that the Pomeranian had developed an immune response to the viral infection with antibodies found in the blood,” the spokesman said.

“Veterinary experts and scientists from … City University of Hong Kong, as well as the school of public health of the HKU, have concluded that the result further supports that the Pomeranian has been infected with the Covid-19 virus,” he concluded.

The spokesman added that virus isolation, another form of testing, was performed on previous samples taken from the Pomeranian with a negative result, indicating no live virus was retrieved.

As on Wednesday, the AFCD had conducted tests on 17 dogs and eight cats from households with confirmed coronavirus cases and persons in close contact with patients, and only two dogs had tested positive for the virus.

The second dog was a two-year-old German shepherd, which twice tested positive for the virus before returning a negative reading on Monday.

“These findings indicate that dogs and cats are not infected easily with this virus, and there is no evidence that they play a role in the spread of the virus,” the spokesman added.

“Nevertheless, as Covid-19 is a newly emerged disease and the situation is still evolving, the AFCD is taking a precautionary approach in quarantining animals from households with confirmed human cases.”