Study uncovers new coronavirus, possible dog-to-human transmission

Duke University is reporting the discovery of a new coronavirus variety, discovered in a child diagnosed with pneumonia back in 2018 in Malaysia. According to the evidence available, it appears this new coronavirus made the jump from a dog to infect the child.

Can coronavirus be transmitted from animals to humans? 

“How common this virus is, and whether it can be transmitted efficiently from dogs to humans or between humans, nobody knows,” says Gregory Gray, M.D., a professor of medicine, global health, and environmental health at Duke University.

“What’s more important is that these coronaviruses are likely spilling over to humans from animals much more frequently than we know,” Dr. Gray adds. “We are missing them because most hospital diagnostic tests only pick up known human coronaviruses.”

If officially confirmed, this new coronavirus variation would be the eighth unique variety known to cause disease in human beings. While most of those are mild and don’t cause severe symptoms, the implication that animal-to-human coronavirus transmission is accelerating is unsettling.

Dr. Gray is no stranger to coronaviruses or COVID-19. Last year, during the early days of the pandemic, he was part of a team that put together a molecular diagnostic tool capable of identifying and detecting most known coronaviruses (including SARS-CoV-2, the variety that causes COVID-19).

Recent research and results

Gray and his team used the tool once again to analyze and investigate 301 archived pneumonia cases. That process led to the detection of canine coronavirus “signals” emanating from eight patients who had been hospitalized with pneumonia in Sarawak, a region of East Malaysia.

Next, scientists from Ohio State lent a helping hand and grew a coronavirus using samples from one of the clinical specimens. After a methodical and complex genome reconstruction process, researchers were able to conclusively identify the virus as a novel canine coronavirus.

“There are probably multiple canine coronaviruses circulating and spilling over into humans that we don’t know about,” Dr. Gray explains. 

Alarming, yes, but the study’s authors stress that the majority of these “crossovers” ultimately yield few medical consequences or considerations for humans.

“Many of those spillovers are dead ends, they don’t ever leave that first human host,” he says.

That said, the potential for another COVID-19 is present. And, if there’s even the slightest chance of another threat like that, it behooves the entire global community to come together and start following these matters more closely.

“But if we really want to mitigate the threat, we need better surveillance where humans and animals intersect, and among people who are sick enough to get hospitalized for novel viruses.”

Why does COVID-19 keep changing? 

The topic of where to place the blame for COVID-19 is popping up more and more lately, and while it’s natural for people to look for an answer, the reality is what’s done is done. What is most important now is ensuring nothing on this scale ever happens again.

“These pathogens don’t just cause a pandemic overnight,” Dr. Gray concludes. “It takes many years for them to adapt to the human immune system and cause infection, and then to become efficient in human-to-human transmission. We need to look for these pathogens and detect them early.”

The full study can be found here, published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.