I knew that many people vaccinate their dogs to protect them against coronavirus; in fact, that vaccination is often a requirement for dogs that will be held in a boarding kennel.

While I was familiar with the name corona, I didn’t know how the canine and human corona viruses differed. As someone who shares a couch with a bunch of sporting dogs, I thought I should know.

The coronaviruses comprise a large family of viruses that affect humans and animals. Most importantly, the coronaviruses that cause diarrhea and respiratory symptoms in dogs are not the same as the Covid-19 novel coronavirus currently in the news.

At this time, according to the Canine Health Foundation, health officials have not expressed concern about transmission of Covid-19 from companion animals to humans.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization report that at this time there is no evidence companion animals, such as pet dogs or cats can spread coronavirus to humans.

Yet there is one way a companion animal can “transmit” Covid-19.

If the owner is infected, he or she can “spread” the virus on the pet’s collar, coat or leash simply by coughing in the pet’s vicinity and contaminating items the pet is wearing.

Anyone who has the virus or may have had contact with someone who has the virus, should not take a companion animal to the veterinarian, since the virus can live on such inanimate objects for many hours.

There was some misinformation about Covid-19 when the first outbreak was detected in Wuhan, China.

Early on, many patients had some link to a large seafood and live animal market in the area, suggesting animal-to-person spread.

Later, a growing number of patients in China reportedly had no connection with anyone associated with the animal market, which indicated the disease was spreading solely by person-to-person spread.

In dogs, canine coronavirus disease is a highly infectious intestinal infection in dogs, especially puppies. Canine coronavirus is usually short-lived but may cause considerable abdominal discomfort for a few days in infected dogs.

Canine respiratory coronavirus, a group 2 coronavirus, is genetically related to the common cold in humans.

It is spread by direct dog to dog contact and causes acute respiratory symptoms and contributes to canine infectious respiratory disease complex, sometimes called kennel cough.

The virus gets its name from the fact that when viewed under an electron microscope, the virus has a ring of projections that appear like a coronet, or a small crown made of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. The Latin word for crown is corona.

The good news is that preventive vaccinations already exist in the companion animal world. The creation of the canine vaccines is the result of decades of research and testing.

Developing the vaccine for dogs has laid the groundwork for developing a coronavirus vaccine in humans as veterinary research has found the “known pathways of coronavirus pathophysiology.”

Various human vaccine companies are racing to get a coronavirus vaccine.

Greffex CEO John Price, of Texas, has said his company is “completely confident” it has developed such a vaccine, although approval could take a while.