Canine coronavirus (CCoV) is an enveloped, positive-sense, single-stranded RNA virus which is a member of the species Alphacoronavirus 1.

[5] Canine coronavirus was originally thought to cause serious gastrointestinal disease, but now most cases are considered to be very mild or without symptoms.

[8][9] This may be related to the high mutation rate of RNA positive stranded viruses, of which canine coronavirus is one.

[7] Recently, a second type of canine coronavirus (Group II) has been shown to cause respiratory disease in dogs.

[13] A study published on May 20, 2021, analyzed samples from eight patients with pneumonia (seven of whom were children) in hospitals of Sibu and Kapit, Malaysia, taken between 2017 and 2018 and found a novel coronavirus.

Most of these affect the spike protein and it is thought the virus could have undergone genetic recombination to achieve those traits.