DEAR READERS: Analysis of 410 species of birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles and mammals found that about 40% of those that are thought to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 are considered threatened or endangered. These include the Western lowland gorilla, Sumatran orangutan and Northern white-cheeked gibbon, which are predicted to be at very high risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2. Gray whales, bottlenose dolphins, white-tailed deer and Chinese hamsters are at high risk; cats, cows and sheep are at medium risk; and dogs, pigs and horses are at low risk.

This valuable contribution to our understanding of the potential threat of this virus to other species calls for One Health (onehealthinitiative.com) precautionary measures to minimize -- and ideally prevent -- infected humans from infecting other animals. Those animals, if infected, could then serve as reservoirs to reinfect people -- or, if endangered, they could become extinct.

Immediate steps must be taken by zoos, circuses (those with performances by wild animals, outlawed in many places), wildlife parks, marine aquariums and conservation areas to limit human-animal proximity and routinely test all staff, wildlife officers and anti-poaching forces. In addition, all visitors should be screened.

Precautions are called for with workers around cattle and sheep, which are considered at medium risk of coronavirus infection. Even though pigs are at low risk, workers also need to be screened, especially considering that hog confinement units generally have poor air quality and can be sources of influenza and other zoonotic infections.

White-tailed deer, currently overpopulating and spreading chronic wasting disease across North America, may be at higher risk, especially on farms where employees infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could spread it to the deer. Such human-to-animal infection has happened in Utah, as well as in Denmark and the Netherlands, where infected workers on fur ranches infected mink.

Hamsters are very popular cage pets, and special precautions are called for in households that include a hamster and one or more infected humans. During an infection, physical contact with the hamster should be avoided. The hamster(s) should be kept in a separate room with only one healthy adult tending them, being sure to wash hands before and after cleaning, feeding and watering. Ferrets are also susceptible, and similar precautions are called for.

High vigilance is called for with all highly and moderately susceptible species since, as the Dutch government has shown, mink infected with SARS-CoV-2 contracted from workers subsequently passed the infection on to other workers.

It would be highly advisable for all pet stores to stop selling these and other animals, limit public contact and, if they must, sell only aquarium fish.

Cats must be kept indoors. Otherwise, infective pools of cats carrying the coronavirus could become established, with infected humans acting as constant sources of infection and reinfection into the surrounding cat communities. Some cats could bring the coronavirus into their homes since cat-to-cat transfer has been documented, although as yet, no case of cat-to-human transfer has been reported. Infected cats could put other wildlife at risk, especially indigenous predators like the foxes, weasels and mink in Minnesota’s forests and elsewhere.

Especially in light of trans-species passage, the development of a safe, effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine will be a challenge. Similar difficulties with constantly evolving strains of the influenza virus -- with its avian, porcine and human variant recombinants -- mean some vaccines, developed in anticipation of the next pandemic, do not give effective protection from an unexpected new variant strain.

Surely the thing for any sane and civil society to do is to practice effective preventive medicine from a One Health perspective, which first calls for a total revision of our relationships with animals.

TURMERIC COMPOUND MIGHT HELP DOGS WITH EYE PAIN

Turmeric may be useful in treating canine uveitis, a painful inflammatory condition of the eye that can occur after cataract surgery or secondary to some cancers and infectious or autoimmune diseases, says veterinary ophthalmologist Erin Scott. She and her colleagues have discovered that a nanoparticle formulation of curcumin, found in turmeric, is easily absorbed and effective for managing uveitis with no apparent side effects. Scott hopes to begin clinical trials of the compound soon. (Full story: release from Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, 8/27)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: We have an almost-1-year-old kitten who is both a terrible bossy little thing and a much-loved addition to our home. We live in a small town with a large wild animal population that we want to protect her from -- and also protect from her -- so we don’t allow her outside on her own.

I have leash-trained her, which now feels like a huge mistake. She loves it, and we have committed to getting her outside for at least an hour each day, but it is hugely boring for my husband and myself. It involves standing in the driveway to watch ants, staring at the neighbor’s fence and looking into bushes for long periods. But I know this is important to her!

She believes anytime we are in the living room and kitchen area, we are available to go outside. She does not harass us to go outside unless we are in the main area of the house, but when we are, it is relentless and insistent crying. Understand that we play and cuddle with her; she has a handmade climbing structure that is periodically rearranged for variety; we introduce new toys regularly, and have windows where she can sit and listen to/smell the outside world. We are not able to build her a cat structure that she can independently access, as we have a coyote den across the street and a raccoon family in a spruce tree in our backyard. And I fear that wouldn’t be safe anyway, as I know many people who have had their chicken coops broken into.

How do we stop the crying? Sometimes I put her in the back room where she has a backup litter box and water, just so it’s quieter. I feel guilty, but I need to do chores -- or just sit and eat -- without listening to her cry. We normally take her outside in the early evening, and she spends the day in the office with me happily.

I’ve tried preempting the crying by going outside earlier in the day, but as soon as we sit on the couch, start to cook or sit at the table to drink coffee, she is there yelling at us. In general, it seems she needs more stimulation than other cats I’ve had. I want to provide her with a life that is happy and meets her needs, but the crying is too much. If I take a work break in the bedroom, she comes and cuddles, but if I take it in the living room, she demands to go outside. As soon as she comes inside, she is back to demanding to go out again, and only stops if we leave the room or she falls asleep.

Please help! -- M.M., Port Townsend, Washington

DEAR M.M.: Many readers will appreciate your description of “walking” your cat (always in a well-fitting harness, I assume). It is quite different from taking the dog for a walk. We must follow at the cat’s pace! Sometimes they just collapse -- they want to sun-bask and bake on the hot trail or sidewalk.

Then there are things to see and sniff and hear for cats that are way beyond the realm of our normal senses (until we enter the cat’s mind, as I strive to do in my book “Cat Body, Cat Mind”). Cats have taught me a lot in this lifetime, and there is much more to learn.

Your cat has trained you -- yes, they do learn ways to control us -- and now demands constant walks outside. Considering the coyotes and raccoons, my usual suggestions -- building an outside “catio” or putting your cat on a safe running line -- are out of the question. Instead, consider getting another cat: a friendly, neutered, slightly younger one that tests negative for feline viral leukemia and immunodeficiency viruses.

Cats have taught me that two cats living together are generally much healthier, less obese and happier than those who live with only human companionship. We humans cannot fulfill all the social and emotional needs of other species we take in as “pets.” They can only do it for each other, and they do it best!

M.M. REPLIES: Thank you for your response. Armed with your professional input, I will encourage a visit to the local shelter and adopt another cat!

BIG DOGS NEUTERED EARLY ARE AT RISK FOR JOINT PROBLEMS

Mixed-breed dogs that weigh more than 44 pounds as adults are more likely than smaller dogs to have joint problems if they were neutered or spayed before they were 1 year old, according to a study in Frontiers in Veterinary Science. Shelters, breeders and rescue organizations might reconsider policies for spaying and neutering in light of the finding, says co-author Lynette Hart, a professor at the University of California at Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. (Full story: ScienceDaily/University of California, Davis, 8/13)

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)

DEAR DR. FOX: In case you need it, this is just to commend your speaking out about what’s wrong with this world, the environment, animal health and public health.

Keep up the fight. -- C.H., Naples, Florida

DEAR DR. FOX: I never paid attention to your column until I happened to notice your connecting animal advice to environmental issues. I don’t “own” any pets, but now I look for interesting tidbits in your articles that confirm my feelings about how the destruction of the natural world impacts all of our lives. It’s not ”politics” -- it’s reality. -- A.T., Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania

DEAR C.H AND A.T.: I appreciate your words of support. Anyone with even a grain of empathy certainly needs such support, given these times of an economically and socially disruptive pandemic, political pandemonium, corruption, disinformation and the in-our-faces climate and extinction crises.

The more one knows, the more one suffers -- especially when confronted by the denial and lies of others. Lies abound, whether about the suffering of factory-farmed animals, the starvation of marine animals from our overfishing and ocean pollution, or the desecration and decimation of wildlands and indigenous peoples around the world.

Once, humans could communicate with other species as gatherer-hunters who gave thanks to the lives they took to sustain their own. Once, farmers could read the weather and know when best to plant and harvest. But now this weather-wisdom has been supplanted by computer-assisted “precision” farming with climate-monitoring satellite telecommunication systems. All of this seems justified now, because we have created unpredictable climatic aberrations -- for instance, the devastating drought and fires in California and floods in China. Another dire warning is the recent derecho that destroyed so many homes and millions of acres of Iowa farmland.

Artificial intelligence is no substitute for natural intelligence and indigenous wisdom. It is a distraction from the tasks of recovering our sanity and relearning how to listen to the Earth. The One Health worldview calls for reducing our use of fossil fuels for food production and transportation, as well as limiting our over-reliance (in more affluent countries) on using animals as a primary food source. I see these issues as the proper, primary agenda of every government and of every conscientious consumer.

As the late Dr. Albert Schweitzer advised, ”A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help.”

DEAR DR. FOX: I saw your 2016 article that contained information on the American Kennel Club’s involvement with unethical breeders. My family suddenly lost our beloved dog Rex, an AKC-registered Rottweiler, at only 7 years old. He had multiple joint problems requiring surgery on all four limbs during his life, and ended up dying due to complications from a rare form of highly aggressive osteosarcoma.

We are devastated from losing him so quickly and so young. There were obvious genetic issues at the root of his joint problems, and likely his cancer. After his death, I am now realizing that his issues were in part due to breeding.

Do you have any recommendations on who I could contact (at AKC or otherwise) to try to prevent any future litters that may be impacted by the genetic issues my Rex experienced? -- A.M-W., Washington, D.C.

DEAR A.M-W.: I regret hearing of the demise of this poor dog and how much he must have suffered. Advances in genetic screening for inherited diseases in dogs offer the opportunity for ethical breeders of purebred dogs to improve the health and well-being of our canine companions.

I think it is long past time for the AKC to stop making money simply as a dog-breed registry (notably for puppy mill-bred dogs) and as a manufactured dog food industry-promoting dog show business, and get with the times. Anyone purchasing a purebred dog or “designer” breed (like a Labradoodle) should have a certificate of assurance of freedom from any inherited disease or anomaly that could lead to health issues at any time during that animal’s life. For details, see my article “Recovering Canine Health,” posted on my website (drfoxonehealthcom).

(Send all mail to animaldocfox@gmail.com or to Dr. Michael Fox in care of Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

Visit Dr. Fox’s website at DrFoxOneHealth.com.)