Hong Kong study claims hamsters caused Covid Delta outbreak in city in January

A Hong Kong study appears to have confirmed the origin of the city's Delta variant outbreak of Covid—imported hamsters.

The investigation, which was jointly conducted by the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) school of public health and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, claimed that Syrian hamsters were the source of a local outbreak of the Delta variant two months ago.

They found that over half of 28 the Syrian hamsters imported into the city from the pet shop and warehouse in Causeway Bay had shown signs of COVID-19 infection, with full genome sequencing revealing they had been infected in mid-October.

The researchers on Friday called for more animal import controls after they found that hamsters could contract and spread COVID-19.

The study, published in The Lancet medical journal, also suggested that other animal species could also transmit Coronavirus to humans, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported.

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“These findings highlight that SARS-CoV-2 may be spilling over to other animal species unsuspected and providing an additional reservoir for the virus for further adaptation and zoonotic spillover back to humans,” the report read.

In January this year, as many as 2,000 imported hamsters were culled after the health authorities believed that animal-to-human transmissions of Covid led to the outbreak in the city.

Eleven samples taken from hamsters in a Causeway Bay pet store tested positive for the Coronavirus and the shop’s employee, a customer and her husband were also confirmed as infected.

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The initial infections, together with others linked to two pet shops in Mong Kok and Tai Po, led to subsequent human-to-human transmissions, the authorities claimed at that time.

(With inputs from agencies)