Ebola and Dogs

Can dogs become infected with Ebola? Yes. For ten years, we’ve known that dogs eating dead animals infected with Ebola can become infected with Ebola themselves.

Researchers studied dogs in Gabon after the 2001 Ebola outbreak. “Ebola virus antibody prevalence in dogs and human risk” published in Emerging Infectious Disease March 2005. Although the dogs developed antibodies to Ebola (IgG), they were asymptomatic and no dogs have been found to become ill with Ebola. The number of dogs with antibodies was up to 40% in areas with the highest concentration of infected humans.

Dogs are not the only species that become infected with Ebola. In a summary of research published in Developmental Biology in 2014, Canadian researchers stated that fruit bats; monkey species, including macaques; and pigs become infected.

From this group of infected animals, there are 3 important concepts:

1. Bats, monkeys, and pigs can transmit the infection to other animals;

2. Bats and monkeys can transmit Ebola to humans;

3. It is not known whether pigs and dogs can transmit Ebola to humans in settings outside the laboratory.

If you'd like more detail, the following are abstracts for information cited above:

Ebola virus antibody prevalence in dogs and human risk.

Emerg Infect Dis. March 2005;11(3):385-90.

Loïs Allela¹; Olivier Boury; Régis Pouillot; André Délicat; Philippe Yaba; Brice Kumulungui; Pierre Rouquet; Jean-Paul Gonzalez; Eric M Leroy

¹Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville, Franceville, Gabon.

Article Abstract

During the 2001-2002 outbreak in Gabon, we observed that several dogs were highly exposed to Ebola virus by eating infected dead animals. To examine whether these animals became infected with Ebola virus, we sampled 439 dogs and screened them by Ebola virus-specific immunoglobulin (Ig) G assay, antigen detection, and viral polymerase chain reaction amplification. Seven (8.9%) of 79 samples from the 2 main towns, 15 (15.2%) of 99 samples from Mekambo, and 40 (25.2%) of 159 samples from villages in the Ebola virus-epidemic area had detectable Ebola virus-IgG, compared to only 2 (2%) of 102 samples from France. Among dogs from villages with both infected animal carcasses and human cases, seroprevalence was 31.8%. A significant positive direct association existed between seroprevalence and the distances to the Ebola virus-epidemic area. This study suggests that dogs can be infected by Ebola virus and that the putative infection is asymptomatic.

Review of Ebola virus infections in domestic animals.

Dev Biol (Basel). January 2013;135(0):211-8.

H M Weingartl¹; C Nfon; G Kobinger

¹National Centre for Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD), Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health, Winnipeg, Canada.

Article Abstract

Ebola viruses (EBOV; genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae) cause often fatal, hemorrhagic fever in several species of simian primates including human. While fruit bats are considered a natural reservoir, the involvement of other species in the EBOV transmission cycle is unclear, especially for domesticated animals. Dogs and pigs are so far the only domestic animals identified as species that can be infected with EBOV. In 2009 Reston-EBOV was the first EBOV reported to infect swine with indicated transmission to humans; and a survey in Gabon found over 30% seroprevalence for EBOV in dogs during the Ebola outbreak in 2001-2002. While infections in dogs appear to be asymptomatic, pigs experimentally infected with EBOV can develop clinical disease, depending on the virus species and possibly the age of the infected animals. In the experimental settings, pigs can transmit Zaire-Ebola virus to naive pigs and macaques; however, their role during Ebola outbreaks in Africa needs to be clarified. Attempts at virus and antibody detection require as a prerequisite validation of viral RNA and antibody detection methods especially for pigs, as well as the development of a sampling strategy. Significant issues about disease development remain to be resolved for EBOV. Evaluation of current human vaccine candidates or development of veterinary vaccines de novo for EBOV might need to be considered, especially if pigs or dogs are implicated in the transmission of an African species of EBOV to humans.

In another Caring for Pets blog, we`ll discuss what it means if a dog is infected and what it means if a dog is contagious because the difference between these two concepts is what determines whether a dog in Ebola-rich environments should be euthanized. 

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