Health authorities in Europe have advised monkeypox patients who have pets, particularly rodents, to have them isolated in government laboratories or, as a last resort, euthanized.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) warned that such pets could become a reservoir of monkeypox, leading to the disease becoming endemic in Europe.
The isolated animals are to be tested by PCR for exposure to monkeypox before their quarantine ends.
“Rodent pets should ideally be isolated in monitored facilities, complying with respiratory isolation (for example, a laboratory) and animal welfare conditions (for example, government facilities, kennels or animal welfare organisations), and tested (by PCR) for exposure before quarantine ends,” the ECDC said.
While the natural reservoir of monkeypox remains unknown, experts believe it comes from rodents in West Africa and Central Africa, where the disease is endemic.
In 2003, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had reported 81 human monkeypox cases after close contact with pet mammals, predominantly rodents.
The import of small mammals from Ghana to Texas was seen as the probable path for introduction of the virus. Its spread among states was connected to infected pet prairie dogs that were housed with the imported rodents.
In the current situation, pet rodents — including hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs and mice — are believed to be most at risk, as they are known to be susceptible to the disease.
As a precaution, monkeypox patients are being told to avoid contact with mammalian pets for 21 days or until they are declared free of the virus. That includes cats and dogs.
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Since cats and dogs are at lower risk of contracting the virus, however, they can be isolated at home in a space where they are away from visitors and where regular veterinary checks can be carried out.
In guidance published last week, the ECDC also urged close contacts of monkeypox patients to stay away from mammalian pets.
Public health authorities have been advised to work with veterinary authorities to ensure systems for quarantining and testing of mammalian pet animals that have been exposed to or are at risk of exposure to the virus.
To date there has been no report of monkeypox infections in animals, domestic or wild, in the European Union. ‘Euthanasia should only be a last resort reserved for situations where testing and/or isolation are not feasible,’ the ECDC added.
Experts remain divided on the actual risk of the virus jumping from human to animals and back. Prof David Robertson of the Glasgow Centre for Virus Research in Scotland said that even if the threat of monkeypox jumping from humans to pets to wildlife is low, it is a “valid concern”. If such a transition were to take place, it would be incredibly hard to trace the spread of the virus which could jump back into humans from wildlife, triggering recurrent outbreaks, he told the British newspaper The Telegraph.
Dr Amr Bayoumy, a lecturer in biosciences at the University of Coventry, told the paper that pet rabbits may be at the highest risk. “We know that rabbits are highly susceptible to monkeypox virus infection and they can show symptoms such as fever, rash, poor appetite and loss of weight,” he said. “Young rabbits can transmit the virus to other rabbits.
“It is not clear what role rabbits may have in transmitting the infection to humans,” he continued. “Therefore, people who have pet rabbits must be careful.”
But Prof Ian H Brown, head of virology at the Animal and Plant Health Agency, called the threat “theoretical”, with diseases “more readily” jumping the other way, from humans to animals.
“There are lots of uncertainties so [it is] always prudent in such situations to educate people and mitigate such risks,” he told The Telegraph. “To date few animal species have known susceptibility to the virus. No companion dog cases have been reported during this event or in previous events.”
