Canine coronavirus | Gunnedah greyhound racing boss Geoff Rose says threat is very real

Geoff Rose - a Gunndah-based director of the NSW Greyhound Breeders, Owners and Trainers Association - believes that greyhound officials would shut down racing if the spread of the virus could not be contained.

However, he said there were "no signs whatsoever" of that being a possibility.

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Rose said: "Anything concerning greyhound welfare is a big concern for us ... we don't want to see any dogs sick.

"And if it gets out of control like it is with the human one [the unrelated novel coronavirus] ... well, it's gonna be pretty devastating."

Rose - the Gunnedah Greyhound Racing Club president - warned that the threat extended beyond the greyhound industry.

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"It won't just stay in greyhounds," he said. "If it gets into greyhounds, it will go through all canines ... family vets, breeding places, the whole lot.

"So yeah, it's very serious. We've just gotta make sure we take as much precautions as we can to control it - as we have [been]."

Rose warned that it would be hard to stop the spread of canine coronavirus given the nature of greyhound racing - with dogs flown to meetings nationwide and then brought home.

"And that's what they're trying to do: they're trying to contain that now," he said.

"So it's quite easy to pick up," he continued, adding that the contagion threat was "no different" to the novel coronavirus threat among humans.

After first being detected in south-east Queensland, canine coronavirus has spread beyond that state - with two cases confirmed in northern NSW last week. There has also been an outbreak in Victoria.

The threat resulted in NSW's Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission (GWIC) last week warning greyhound breeders and trainers across the state to be on alert.

Canine coronavirus causes stomach inflammation and is contagious to other dogs, but not transmissible to humans. Deaths are rare.

The symptoms are loss of appetite, diarrhoea, fever, vomiting and lethargy.

The GWIC said that if a greyhound showed these symptoms, "participants should seek immediate veterinarian advice".