By Dr. Sharon Calvin and Dr. Andrea Osborn
This blog post was originally published to Cultivating Science on science.gc.ca.
This past year the work of epidemiologists was at the forefront and words like the "R number" became a common household term, as the rise of the SARS-CoV-2 virus brought about a global pandemic.
Epidemiologists in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's (CFIA) Animal Health Science Directorate are used to following infectious diseases around the world as they come and go. These emerging diseases sometimes raise the alarm for scientists in multiple countries.
In early 2020, the first reports of pet dogs and cats testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 came to light from various countries. As veterinary science specialists from the CFIA's Animal Health Risk Analysis and Intelligence section, we recognized the need for rapid analysis of risks at the human-animal-environment interface to inform decision-making.
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