People give animals more viruses than the other way around. They often say that you should not sleep in bed with your cat or dog, because they are said to be pathogens. Your animal’s intestinal bacteria come way too close and you can also get skin conditions and inflammation from Poekie or Fikkie in your bed: no success. People who don’t like animals always say ‘dirty animals’. Pigeons have been called “plague spreaders,” not to mention rats. Animals may not fare as well as we humans do, hygienically speaking, but scientific research now proves that it is actually the animals that should stay away from us: for their own safety.
Man as virus spreader
It is not surprising that we often blame animals for transmitting diseases to us: we both blame Ebola and Corona on animals. New research from University College London However, it tells us something else: there is a greater chance that an animal will get a virus from us than the other way around. Now it is not surprising that we always assume that animals transmit diseases: animals do not conduct research into how much people give them viruses: they have no say in this. Moreover, according to our standards, they take less good care of themselves.
But it turns out that we are not as kind to our animals as we sometimes think. The study looked at 12 million viral genome sequences and showed that we do not simply passively receive such a virus. We are spreaders: both from person to person and from person to animal. This happens very often from humans to animals in particular: it would happen twice as often for viruses to jump from humans to animals than the other way around. Viruses really enjoy this jumping: it makes them stronger and stronger because they have been able to discover more different types.
Animals sick
It is unknown exactly which viruses are involved, but it is better for animals to fear us when it comes to diseases than the other way around. This does not mean that you can now let your dog sleep on your head every day: there are still health risks and unpleasantness associated with this, but in any case we are not as innocent as we often consider ourselves when it comes to spreading diseases.
