House sparrow in the snow by Chris Lawrence
Do animals catch colds?
By Barnaby Coupe
If you have pets, you may have noticed a sneeze or two coming from your four-legged friends, but are they sick with the same cold or flu as you?
Do animals catch colds?
Although their viruses rarely spread to humans, lots of different animals suffer from their own versions of influenza or “the flu”. This includes birds, ferrets, horses and pigs, right through to marine mammals like seals and dolphins.
Just like us, cats can catch colds (known as feline upper respiratory disease) but dog flu is much less common. If your dog is sneezing, it’s most likely because they’ve got dust up their nose!
Rob Jordan/2020VISION
Dogs often sneeze when overcome with excitement. If you’re about to go for a walk, or have got a treat ready, and the sneezing starts then they’re trying to tell you how happy they are!
How do animals get sick?
Animals get sick in all the same ways we do. The name “common cold” is misleading, as humans don’t actually catch the virus from being cold! Instead, we get the flu in winter as we all huddle together inside to stay warm. This means that it is very easy for the virus to spread and infect new people. The same thing happens in the wild, as viruses are passed between animals when they interact and share the same spaces.
What do animals do to get better?
A new branch of scientific research called “Zoopharmacognosy” (try saying that with a cold!) looks at how animals in the wild deliberately use roots, leaves, minerals and seeds to help recover from being ill. If you’ve ever seen a dog eating grass, it is probably because they have an upset stomach or a parasite and are trying to vomit up the problem! Red and green macaws, along with many other animals, eat clay to help digestion and kill bacteria.
When fruit flies detect parasitic wasps, they lay their eggs in places with lots of rotting fruit. The rotting fruit produces alcohol, which the young flies (called larvae) soak up by eating the fungi and bacteria that grow on it. If wasps try to lay eggs in the fly larvae, the eggs get poisoned by all the alcohol and the larvae are saved.
Insects can get sick too! Insects are often seen as carriers of diseases like malaria and Lyme disease, but have a host of their own bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasitoids.
Tom Marshall
Do any animals not catch colds?
Not every animal species can catch the flu, but every animal on the planet can get sick from all kinds of nasty bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. Even plants have their own assortment of beastly bugs and deadly diseases!
