Hong Kong has asked pet shops and owners to hand over close to 2,000 hamsters for culling by authorities, after 11 of the small rodents tested positive for the coronavirus in a pet shop. The territory has also suspended the import of small animals.
Authorities announced the decision Tuesday (1/18/22) after the city’s health experts found two groups of hamsters, which originated in the Netherlands and arrived in Hong Kong on Dec. 22 and Jan. 7, to be “high-risk” for carrying the novel coronavirus. The hamsters turned over by pet owners will be killed to “cut the transmission chain,” health officials said.
“Evidence shows that the hamsters are infected with the COVID-19 virus. It is impossible to quarantine and observe each of them and their incubation period could be long,” said Leung Siu-fai, the director of Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
The role of pets in coronavirus transmission has been studied and debated since the start of the pandemic, but for the most part, infection appears to be a one-way street, with animals catching the virus from their owners and generally recovering quickly.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the risk of animals spreading the virus to people “low” but noted that it “can spread from people to animals during close contact.” The exception appears to be minks, with cases of humans being infected by them.
In 2020, Denmark culled some 17 million commercially raised minks after they were found to be at risk of carrying the coronavirus. The government later admitted that the minks were improperly killed and buried, and a commission has been established to look into the case.
In cramped Hong Kong, hamsters have been popular as cute and low-maintenance pets.
The city, like mainland China, is holding firm to a policy of “zero COVID,” imposing extreme, 21-day quarantine requirements on anyone arriving from overseas. The territory was able to maintain zero local infections for weeks until December, when two flight attendants returning from the United States who were infected with the highly transmissible omicron variant went out into the community.
You need to realize that the hamsters [which] have already got infected are excreting the virus; they can infect other animals, other hamsters and human beings,
Health authorities have ordered the closure of all pet shops selling hamsters as well as the mandatory testing of anyone who has bought a hamster since Dec. 22, 2021.
https://www.sumeetsud.com/tag/HongKong/
https://www.sumeetsud.com/tag/hamsters/