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Scientists have identified two new coronaviruses in humans, although neither was proven to cause illness or spread to other people. One study identified pigs as the animal host of one virus, and another study found that a coronavirus had likely stemmed from dogs, the first time a canine coronavirus has been shown to infect humans.
“This research clearly shows that more studies are desperately needed to evaluate critical questions regarding the frequency of cross-species [coronavirus] transmission and potential for human-to-human spread,” Ralph Baric, a virologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who was not involved in either study, tells Science.
The dog study, published May 20 in Clinical Infectious Diseases, stemmed from a question Gregory Gray, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Duke University, had early in the pandemic, reports NPR. He wondered whether there were other coronaviruses already infecting people that might one day ...
