Monkeypox Originated in Animals. Could It Spill Back Into Them?

Monkeypox was released in the US in 2003 due to lab conditions that differed from real-world scenarios. African species, such as dormice, were housed by a succession of exotic- animal dealers. It's not clear which species would be the most likely to host monkeypox in the US, because that contact wouldn't have taken place in a natural environment. More than 170 African rodents and 103 prairie dogs were not accounted for after the outbreak, according to a 2008 lookback by the FDA. They could have been killed or escaped, but the Midwest did not show any further spread.

Pets have been involved in the transmission of virus in the past. Over the past 20 years, European researchers have repeatedly identified cowpox, a related virus in the orthopox genera, passing to kids from pet rats that may have come from shady breeders, or from pet cats who might have been exposed to it at a breeding facility. There is a documented case of a 14-year-old girl trying to nurse a rat back to health after it was injured outside. The rat passed away. The girl is alive

Europe and Russia are the places where cowpox is more common than Africa. There is no proof that monkeypox will follow the same path as its viral cousin did. The cowpox cases are illustrative of how infections can cross from the wild world into the human one thanks to accidental importation and the exotic- animal trade.

Kids in Germany and France wanted pet rodents just like kids in the US in 2003 and that started a trade of potentially infectious animals into Germany and France.

The door can swing either way. There is good evidence that the cause of Covid has spread from humans to mammals in North America and Europe. There is a chance monkeypox could do the same thing. The Health Security Agency of the UK recommended that people with monkeypox take their pets out of their homes until they recover from the disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people with monkeypox avoid interacting with animals and find someone else to take care of their pets while they recover.

The only way to know if a species is vulnerable to monkeypox is to set up a broad program to find animals that have been exposed to the disease. Even if scientists knew which species were at risk, it would still take a lot of time. We have been looking for infections for a long time. You are looking for a small pin in a haystack.

There are no huge, pre-existing banks of cells and tissues taken from humans or mice. They could be used to compare the known hosts of monkeypox and other species that might be at risk. It would be difficult to set up a new animal program because of the cost and labor involved.

In order to detect the spread of monkeypox to new animal species, an equivalent of the wastewater sampling set up is needed. An existing system can be used to ask questions that can be answered with lab techniques. It would be quicker than trapping individual animals and taking them to the hospital. It would be quicker than the 2003 alternative of not knowing which animals are vulnerable to infections and finding them sick too late.