It might be time to start teaching that old dog new physical distancing tricks.

With the news of two pet cats catching the coronavirus from their owners in New York City last week, public health authorities have revised their advice on what people who are sick with COVID-19 should do with their pets.

The cats join a Tiger in the Bronx Zoo, minks on farms in the Netherlands, and some other reports of human-to-animal transmission of this disease. As this virus is believed to have come from bats, there are plenty of questions about what might happen if it moves back to other animals.

To answer these and other questions, Raju Mudhar speaks with an expert on infectious diseases in animals. Scott Weese is a veterinary internal medicine specialist and a professor and chief of infection control at the University of Guelph’s Ontario Veterinary College, and he gives a look at the animal kingdom in the time of a pandemic.

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