Coronavirus and goats

Since deer, dogs, cats, tigers, mink, and probably other species have all demonstrated the ability to catch and spread Covid, I can only surmise that goats probably can too. However, I doubt it is nearly as serious for them as it is for people. It doesn't seem to be sickening the whitetail deer who are currently spreading it amongst themselves in some parts of the country. I do know someone whose cat died of Covid. The whole family got sick but only the cat died. It surprises me that deer have it. How many deer get that close to humans for long enough to contract Covid? Or did it jump to a domestic species such as cattle, sheep, or goats and then get passed to deer? Perhaps there was a bridge species that no one ever bothered to test? That seems more plausible than having it jump straight from humans to deer. I would guess the only reason they found it in deer is because deer heads are frequently sent to labs during hunting season to test for wasting disease.

From memory, in the studies done on animal ACE2 receptors early in the pandemic, "Goat/Sheep" came up as a "Plausible" match.

Not as good a match as human, or even feline, but still possible that they could catch it.

Successful spread onwards (to humans or other goats) gets less likely the worse the match is.
So does the likelihood of becoming seriously ill - I strongly suspect a goat would be asymptomatic. But you never know.

However new variants may infect our animals better.
I'm hearing reports that Omicron is now a match for Mouse ACE2 - Covid never used to be able to 'plug in' to a mouse.

Worst case scenario, Omicron could just manage to enter a goat herd, spread between them, evolve to match Goat ACE2, come back out to reinfect humans as Pi, and make off with the children like the Pied Piper.

Given this, should I test positive or have symptoms, I would:

• minimise the time I spend with my animals or keep it out in the fresh air
• avoid cuddling, kissing, nose contact with goats and kids
• wear a mask for milking and other close contact necessities.

Not a lot more I can do ... they need me. Fortunately I live in NZ and the chance of catching covid is vanishingly small but that could change overnight.

I did read a new article about 6 months ago saying that a company was developing a Covid vaccine for veterinary use.

They hoped their vaccine would be broad spectrum for all manner of animals, and their target market was both Zoo animals, and Farm animals.

They spoke about dairy cows being in close contact with humans, and the crowded conditions many livestock live in.
I imagine if a company thought it worth investing in research for a livestock vaccine, it's at least plausible such animals could catch it and spread it in crowded conditions.

Did the article say covid or corona virus? Just about every species on earth has it's own strain of corona virus. Covid is just one of thousands of corona strains. You can vaccinate cattle, dogs and horses (probably sheep and goats also) for their specific corona strain.

I work in a hospital. I am around covid positive people all the time. I work security, so I go hands on with out of control patients. A lot of the mental health patients are homeless or unable to care for themselves so end up getting covid. Same for Dementia patients. As such, they are very uncooperative to begin with, worse so when they feel sick. I have been coughed on, spit on, bitten- you name it - by the covid patients. My mask gets frequently ripped off my face. Early on, we didn't have the supplies to mask everyone, so medical staff got the masks and gowns, security did not. My department is also the one who takes all the bodies down to the morgue and then later releases them to the funeral home. On top of that, my son, daughter in law and grandson had covid in December of 2019 (she worked in a huge hospital that sees patients from all over the world.). Guess who has not gotten it?

Given all that you would think that I would have been infected. Nope-not so much as a sniffle. I made it through almost 2 years of being actively exposed to it before being vaccinated. I only just recently got vaccinated for it (October 2021) or I would have lost my job, so you certainly can't say the shot saved me. In fact, between the shot and the constant masking my mild asthma has gone to full fledged COPD within the past year and a half.

Some of the diseases I come in contact with can possibly be passed on to my dogs, goats, horses...but none of them have gotten sick, just like me.

Anyway, on my farm I am exposed to all sorts of bacteria, viruses, fungi, etc so my immune system is at peak performance, sort of like nature intended. I tend to do things like eat in the barn while doing chores, milking, cleaning ...without washing my hands. I almost never wash my hands at home. I drink the milk raw. All those are what keeps me healthy, just like the goats, horses and dogs..