A pug, Winston, from North Carolina may be the first dog in US to test positive

Winston, a family dog in North Carolina has tested positive for the coronavirus. It may be the first dog in the United States to test positive for coronavirus, according to researchers.

The McClean family of four found their pug, Winston, tested positive for coronavirus after the family participated in a study about COVID-19 aimed at trying to find potential treatments and vaccines byDuke University. In this study, the subjects undergo weekly nasal swabs and give blood samples.

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Three members of the McClean family,Sam McClean, wife Heather and their son, Ben,had tested positive last month. However, their daughter, Sydney McClean, was the only one to test negative.

Chris Woods, the principal investigator of the study, said that the reason Winston was tested positive was because the researchers have also been collecting samples from family pets to observe the spread ofcoronavirus in households.

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According to the university researchers, winston might be the first dog in the US to test positive as till now they haven't received a positive result of any other house pet in the country.Winston was showing mild symptoms while the family was infected with the virus. However,researchers said they do not know if it is coronavirus that made Winston sick, or if he had an unrelated ailment.

The family also has another dog and a cat, who have tested negative. Heather McClean explained that the reason behind this might be that Winston is more affectionate than the other two pets, and therefore the family holds him more.

"His (Winston's) amount of virus that we detected was very low, suggesting that he would not be a likely mechanism or vector of transmission of virus to either other animals or to, to humans in these households," Woods explained.

"He had a small cough for a day or two right in the peak when all of us were sick and he didn't eat his breakfast one morning," Ben McClean told a media organization.

"But we didn't have any concrete, like, super alarming illnesses where we're like, 'we need to take him to the vet. He's like really sick," he added.

Sam McClean tested positive for the virus after he treated few COVID-19 patients at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he isa researcher and emergency room doctor.

"I would not change our, our behaviors with our household animals at this point. They're really an important part of our ongoing mental health as we continue to participate in our social distancing to combat the pandemic," Woods said.

The McClean family has recovered and are out of quarantine now."We are feeling very grateful that we have the opportunity to participate in this research study," Heather told a media organization. "We are really hopeful that we can donate plasma to be able to help other patients."