Story at a glance
- Some household pets, including cats, have tested positive for COVID-19.
- Early research suggests the coronavirus could travel through nasal shedding in cats.
- Many cats, however, remain asymptomatic despite testing positive for the coronavirus.
As scientists discover more about the novel coronavirus in humans, they’re also learning how the disease could affect our furry friends.
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Chinese researchers published a preprint on March 31, although the findings had not yet been peer reviewed. The research suggested that while SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, doesn’t replicate well in dogs, pigs, chickens or ducks, it does travel efficiently in cats and ferrets.
One big cat, a tiger at a zoo in New York City, was the first confirmed case of the coronavirus in an animal in the United States. A staff member who was asymptomatically carrying the coronavirus reportedly spread the disease to the zoo’s animals.
A few weeks later, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the country’s first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in two pet cats, both living in separate areas of New York. The two cats also presented with a mild respiratory illness and were expected to make a full recovery, but many other pets who have since tested positive for coronavirus were asymptomatic.
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U.S. and Japanese researchers reported that asymptomatic cats may be a silent intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine on May 13.
The researchers took three domestic cats that had previously tested negative for COVID-19 and inoculated, or vaccinated, them with a small sample of the virus. Days later, three other cats housed with the infected cats had the coronavirus as well. But none of them showed any symptoms, including body temperature, weight loss or conjunctivitis.
Six days later, the three originally infected cats no longer had the coronavirus. In two weeks, all six cats had coronavirus antibodies.
“Given the need to stop the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic through various mechanisms, including breaking transmission chains, a better understanding of the role cats may play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans is needed,” said the letter.
Since Hong Kong officials discovered that pets could test positive for COVID-19, there have not been any reported cases of the virus being transmitted from domestic animals to humans.
Still, the CDC recommends taking precautions such as keeping your pets indoors when possible and maintaining a distance between other pets when outside, as well as maintaining good pet hygiene.
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