[Animals] 2,000 hamsters, small animals to be killed in Hong Kong after positive COVID cases

[FazzNoth]

 

HONG KONG — Hong Kong authorities said Tuesday that they will kill about 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, after several tested positive for the coronavirus at a pet store where an employee was also infected.

The city will also stop the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals, according to officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department. The pet shop employee tested positive for the delta variant on Monday, and several hamsters imported from the Netherlands at the store tested positive as well.

Dr. Jose Arce, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association, told USA TODAY in November that most animals can recover from the virus quickly and can be treated with antibiotics and steroids. Some zoos, including zoos in Oakland and Cincinnati, have vaccinated their animals against the virus.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals do not appear to play a significant role in spreading the coronavirus. Animals in zoos across the world have tested positive for the virus, including three snow leopards at a Nebraska zoo who died from COVID-19 complications.

But Hong Kong authorities said they are not ruling out transmission between animals and humans.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that the shopkeeper was in fact actually infected from the hamsters,” said Edwin Tsui, a controller at the Centre for Health Protection.

 

While this coronavirus most likely jumped from animals to humans in the first place, the outbreak became a pandemic because the virus spreads so easily between people. Minks are the only known animals to have caught the virus from people and spread it back, according to Dr. Scott Weese at Ontario Veterinary College.

Leung Siu-fai, director of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, said during a news conference that owners should keep hamsters at home, and not take them out. “All pet owners should observe good personal hygiene, and after you have been in contact with animals and their food, you should wash your hands," he said.

“Do not kiss your pets,” he added.

A staffer from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department walks past a pet shop which was closed after some pet hamsters were, authorities said, tested positive for the coronavirus, in Hong Kong, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. 

 

Customers who purchased hamsters from the store after Jan. 7 will be traced and be subject to mandatory quarantine and must hand over their hamsters to authorities to be put down, officials said.

They said all pet stores in Hong Kong must stop selling hamsters and that about 2,000 small mammals, including hamsters and chinchillas, will be killed in a humane manner.

Customers who bought hamsters in Hong Kong from Dec. 22 will be subject to mandatory testing and are urged not contact others until their tests have returned negative. If their hamsters test positive, they will be subject to quarantine.

Hong Kong's Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was “shocked and concerned” by the decision to kill the animals, and urged the government not to “take any drastic action before reviewing its approach."

Hong Kong has been grappling with a local omicron outbreak traced to several Cathay Pacific crew members who dined at bars and restaurants across the city before testing positive for the omicron variant.

https://eu.statesman.com/story/news/world/2022/01/18/2000-hamsters-small-animals-hong-kong-covid/6568460001/