Monkeypox rampant in wildlife would make the virus impossible to control, warn scientists

Stephanie Seifert felt a surge of anxiety when she learnt about the first dog known to catch monkeypox from a human. “I have dogs. So I was, like, ‘Well, that’s awful,’” she says.

But Seifert, a viral ecologist at Washington State University in Pullman who studies how viruses jump between species, also understood the potential significance of the case. In the months since the surge of global monkeypox cases, which started in May, she and her colleagues waited to hear reports of animals catching the virus from people. The first case of human-to-dog transmission was reported in August. The Italian greyhound in France had slept in the same bed with a couple who had symptoms; viral DNA from the dog matched that from one of the owners. The same month, Brazil’s health ministry announced the case of a puppy catching the virus from a person.

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