Due to a corona outbreak, the authorities in Hong Kong have ordered the killing of about 2000 hamsters and other small animals. According to media reports, this was preceded by the case of an owner of a pet shop, where the first infection with the Delta variant in Hong Kong had been detected for a good three months. Subsequently, hamsters had tested positive in their shop, which, according to the public broadcaster RTHK, had been imported from the Netherlands.
As the Hongkonger Zeitung "South China Morning Post" and other Hong Kong media reported, business and hamster holder were asked to let their animals put to sleep on Tuesday. All hamsters who were bought after December 22, 2021 are affected. As a precaution, some other small animals in animal actions should also be killed.
All affected animals would be tested for the coronavirus, it said. If the test is positive, the owners would have to go into quarantine, as well as visitors to the affected pet store. The authorities admitted that so far there is no evidence that pets transmit Sars-CoV-2 to humans – but they want to exercise caution. The South China Morning Post quoted a source as saying there was evidence that there was transmission from animals to humans.
There were hardly any corona cases in Hong Kong last year due to the strict entry regulations. Recently, however, infections with the Omikron variant had occurred. The infected hamsters also shed light on the development of this virus variant. It has long been known that animals can become infected with Sars-CoV-2. This has been proven in cats, mink and white-tailed deer, for example. Experts now suspect that variants of Sars-CoV-2 have developed in wild or farm animals. Omikron is particularly suspected of having formed in such an animal reservoir and of having jumped back on humans.
