Due to a corona outbreak, authorities in Hong Kong have ordered the killing of around 2,000 hamsters and other small animals. According to media reports, this was preceded by the case of a pet shop owner who had been diagnosed with the first infection with the Delta variant in Hong Kong for a good three months. Subsequently, hamsters tested positive in their shop, which, according to the public broadcaster RTHK, had been imported from the Netherlands.
As the Hong Kong newspaper “South China Morning Post” and other Hong Kong media reported unanimously, shops and hamster owners were asked on Tuesday to have their animals put to sleep. All hamsters bought after December 22, 2021 are affected. Some other small animals in pet shops should also be killed as a precaution.
All affected animals would be tested for the corona virus, it said. If the test is positive, the owners would have to go into quarantine, as would visitors to the pet shop concerned. The authorities admitted that there was no evidence that pets transmitted Sars-CoV-2 to humans – but they wanted to exercise caution. The South China Morning Post quoted a source as saying there was evidence of animal-to-human transmission.
There were hardly any corona cases in Hong Kong last year due to the strict entry regulations. Most recently, however, infections with the omicron variant had occurred. The infected hamsters also shed light on the origin of this virus variant. It has long been known that animals can become infected with Sars-CoV-2. This has been demonstrated in cats, mink and white-tailed deer, for example. Experts now suspect that variants of Sars-CoV-2 have developed in wild or livestock. Omicron is particularly suspected of having formed in such an animal reservoir and having jumped back to humans. (dpa/kas)