Intranasally inoculated 9 naive raccoon dogs with SARS-CoV-2 (10^5 TCID50) and introduced 3 additional naive contact animals 24h later; animals observed 28 days with sequential euthanasia/autopsy (days 4, 8, 12, 28). 6/9 inoculated animals became infected, shedding virus via nasal/oropharyngeal secretions (peak titer day 2, RNA detectable to day 16); 2/3 direct-contact animals became infected (transmission). 4/7 seroconverted by day 8 (2 with neutralizing antibodies). Infected animals showed no overt illness beyond mild lethargy and rhinitis on histopathology — no lung involvement. relevance_note: direct experimental demonstration that raccoon dogs (the species most implicated by Wuhan-market sales data) are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, shed high titers, and transmit to contacts while showing minimal clinical signs — the animal-model plausibility check the market-spillover hypothesis needs for its lead candidate species.