First Reported Cases of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Companion Animals — New York, March–April 2020

Abstract

On April 22, CDC and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported cases of two domestic cats with confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). These are the first reported companion animals (including pets and service animals) with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States, and among the first findings of SARS-CoV-2 symptomatic companion animals reported worldwide. These feline cases originated from separate households and were epidemiologically linked to suspected or confirmed human COVID-19 cases in their respective households. Notification of presumptive positive animal test results triggered a One Health* investigation by state and federal partners, who determined that no further transmission events to other animals or persons had occurred. Both cats fully recovered. Although there is currently no evidence that animals play a substantial role in spreading COVID-19, CDC advises persons with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 to restrict contact with animals during their illness and to monitor any animals with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection and separate them from other persons and animals at home (1). SARS-CoV-2 is a zoonotic coronavirus that likely originated in bats (2). A small number of animals worldwide, including dogs, cats, zoo tigers and lions, and farmed mink, have been infected naturally with SARS-CoV-2, mostly through suspected human-to-animal transmission † (3). In addition, experimental studies in ferrets, golden Syrian hamsters, Egyptian fruit bats, and cats show that these species can transmit infection to cohoused animals of the same species (4-7). SARS-CoV-2 Clinical Presentation in Domestic Cats On March 24, in Nassau County, New York, a 4-year-old male domestic shorthair (cat A), developed respiratory illness characterized by sneezing, clear ocular discharge, and mild lethargy (Figure). On April 1, the cat was taken to a veterinary clinic; on physical examination the cat was found to be * One Health is a collaborative, multisectoral, and transdisciplinary approach, working at the local, regional, national, and global levels, with the goal of achieving optimal health outcomes recognizing the interconnection between humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment. † https://www.oie.int/scientific-expertise/specific-information-andrecommendations/questions-and-answers-on-2019novel-coronavirus/.

SARS-CoV-2 infection, disease and transmission in domestic cats

“…Our results, the studies by Shi et al (2020) and Halfmann et al (2020), as well as the reports of pet cats in households with COVID-19 patients (Newman, Smith et al 2020;Leroy, Gouilh et al 2020), show that felines are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and could be potential virus reservoirs. Consistent with our results, Shi et al (2020) and Halfmann et al (2020) also reported no obvious clinical signs in SARS-CoV-2 infected cats which were older than 4 months.…”

“…There have been multiple case reports of natural transmission of the virus from humans to dogs and cats, infection of "big cats" (i.e. a lion and tigers) at the Bronx Zoo, and mink on farms in The Netherlands, Denmark and Spain (Newman, Smith et al 2020;Leroy, Gouilh et al 2020;Oreshkova et al, 2020). In a recent animal susceptibility study, dogs, cats, ferrets, pigs, chickens and ducks were experimentally infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Shi, Wen et al 2020).…”

SARS-CoV-2 spike protein predicted to form complexes with host receptor protein orthologues from a broad range of mammals

“…Indeed, SARS-CoV-2 is already responsible for infections in various animal species. SARS-CoV-2 genomes [16,17] have been isolated from natural infections in zoo lions and tigers [15], companion animals including cats and dogs [60,61] and following widespread outbreaks in multiple mink farms in the Netherlands resulting in mass culling [62] (Fig. 5).…”

Respiratory disease in cats associated with human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK

“…pandemic, naturally occurring SARS-CoV-2 infections linked to transmission from humans have been reported in domestic cats (1,2), non-domestic cats (3), dogs (4) and mink (5). In addition, in vivo experiments have shown that while cats, ferrets and hamsters are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, ducks, chickens and pigs are apparently not susceptible (6,7).…”