very soon after its introduction into the human population,' Vlastova says. 'It's a mutation that's very similar to one previously found in the SARS coronavirus and in SARS-CoV-2. That specific deletion, she says, isn't present in any other known dog coronaviruses, but it is found somewhere else: in human coronaviruses. 'We did discover a very, very unique mutation - or deletion - in the genome,' Vlasova says. Then she found a disturbing clue about the virus's future. 'The majority of the genome was canine coronavirus,' she says. But it likely jumped directly from dogs into people. From the virus's gene sequences, she could see that the virus had likely infected cats and pigs at one point. With a lot of virus on hand, Vlasova could decode its genome. Goats and Soda Visual Explainer: Why Some Coronavirus Variants Are More Contagious Than Others 'Canine coronaviruses were not thought to be transmitted to people. 'I thought, 'There's something wrong,' ' says virologist Anastasia Vlasova. To find out, he sent the patients' samples over to a world expert on animal coronaviruses at Ohio State University. 'You always wonder if there was a problem in the lab,' he says. Perhaps Xiu's test wasn't working quite right. 'That's remarkable.' So remarkable, in fact, that Gray actually thought maybe he and Xiu had made a mistake. 'That's a pretty high prevalence of a virus,' Gray says. But in eight out of 301 samples tested, or 2.7%, Xiu and Gray found that the patients' upper respiratory tracts were infected with a new canine coronavirus, i.e., a dog virus. The patients had what looked like regular pneumonia.

'These were deep nasal swabs, like doctors collect with the COVID-19 patients,' says Gray.

The samples came from patients at a hospital in Sarawak, Malaysia, taken by a collaborator in 20. And we keep in mind that we're all neighbors in this global village. We tell stories of life in our changing world, focusing on low- and middle-income countries. Goats and Soda is NPR's global health and development blog.

Can dogs transmit coronavirus