A case of COVID-19 being transmitted from a human to a dog was registered in Bosnia and Herzegovina, officials from the Sarajevo Faculty of Veterinary Medicine confirmed on Wednesday.

According to the dean of the Faculty, Muhamed Smajlovic, the institution’s scientists were the first in BiH and among the first in the region to isolate the autochthonous strain of the SARS corona 2 virus in June, sequence its gene and send the results to the World Health Organization.

“Our research team has proven the unilateral transmission of the SARS Corona 2 virus from humans to pets. Most of the research was financed from our own and international funds of the IAEA and UNDP,” he said.

Head of the laboratory for molecular genetic and forensic tests, Teufik Goletic, confirmed that this is the first case of infection of an animal confirmed by PCR test in the country.

“This is a finding that places us alongside countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, the United States and China. These are countries where there have been reports of pets getting infected so far and these are mostly cases where it was transmitted from a human,” he said.

He stressed that such cases are very rare and that pet owners do not need to be worried, explaining that no case of an animal transmitting the disease to a human has been confirmed anywhere in the world so far.

According to the head of the clinic at the Faculty, Amir Zahirovic, the infected dog is doing well.

“A physical examination determined that the dog was cheerful and in good spirits, had an appetite, and we did not determine any deviations from the normal condition by special tests,” he explained.