Increase in SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in UK Domestic Felids Despite Weak Immunogenicity of Post-Omicron Variants

Tyson, Grace B.; Jones, Sarah; Montreuil-Spencer, Chloe; Logan, Nicola; Scott, Sam; Sasvari, Hagar; McDonald, Michael; Marshall, Leigh; Murcia, Pablo R.; Willett, Brian J.; Weir, William; Hosie, Margaret J.

doi:10.3390/v15081661

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…In animal shelters, animals have much more limited contact with their caretakers at specific times. The same negative results were obtained in a study carried out in Italy in stray cats (Stranieri et al, 2022) and similar, with a very low seroprevalence (0.009%) (van der Leij et al, 2021) in animals from APCs in Netherlands.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

“…Even though we do not have this information, the appearance of the Omicron variant greatly increased the incidence in people, so this, together with the dates, suggests that in this sampling we could be detecting antibodies to this new variant of concern. However, the Omicron variant was already found to have a lower immunogenicity than previous variants and does not seem to induce a strong antibody response, (Sánchez-Morales et al, 2022;Tyson et al, 2023) which could mean that the antibodies we are detecting are derived from previous variants. However, the emergence of the Omicron variant greatly increased the incidence in people, so this, together with sampling dates, suggests that we may be detecting antibodies to this variant of concern.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

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A retrospective study of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in dogs and cats in the Community of Madrid, Spain

Sánchez-Morales,

Sánchez-Vizcaíno,

Domínguez

et al. 2023

Front. Microbiol.

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To date, susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in domestic animals including cats and dogs has been described. However, it is important to carry out passive surveillance of these animals to be aware of any changes in the outcomes of the disease in these species that may occur. In this study, we have performed a retrospective study in which we analyzed sera (n = 1,640) from random animals: dogs (n = 1,381) and cats (n = 259) belonging to both homes (n = 1,533) and animal protection centers (n = 107) in the Community of Madrid, Spain. Neutralizing antibodies were evaluated between November 2021 and May 2022 using a surrogate ELISA kit to determine the seroprevalence. Based on the results obtained, a few animals (both cats and dogs) presented neutralizing antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (2.3%), all of them from private owners. However, the seroprevalence in cats (4.6%) resulted to be almost twice as much as in dogs (1.9%) which reinforces that cats’ susceptibility to the infection seems higher than in the case of dogs, maybe due to the lower ACE2 expression of the dogs in the respiratory tract. These findings also confirm that the probability of infection is considerably higher in domestic animals in close contact with infected owners, compared to animals living in animal shelters whose contact with humans is markedly lower.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 85%

A retrospective study of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in dogs and cats in the Community of Madrid, Spain

Sánchez-Morales,

Sánchez-Vizcaíno,

Domínguez

et al. 2023

Front. Microbiol.

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“…The majority of SARS-CoV-2 animal cases reported globally are of Delta or earlier VOCs and there are relatively few reports of animal infections with the Omicron variant and its sublineages [ 75 , 76 , 77 ]. In the UK, the Omicron variant (BA.1) became dominant in the human population in December 2021 and since then there have only been two submissions to the NRL for SARS-CoV-2 in animals, both confirmed negative for SARS-CoV-2 (to date, January 2024).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant (B.1.617.2) in Domestic Dogs and Zoo Tigers in England and Jersey during 2021

Seekings,

Shipley,

Byrne

et al. 2024

Viruses

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Reverse zoonotic transmission events of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been described since the start of the pandemic, and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) designated the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in animals a reportable disease. Eighteen domestic and zoo animals in Great Britain and Jersey were tested by APHA for SARS-CoV-2 during 2020–2023. One domestic cat (Felis catus), three domestic dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), and three Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) from a zoo were confirmed positive during 2020–2021 and reported to the WOAH. All seven positive animals were linked with known SARS-CoV-2 positive human contacts. Characterisation of the SARS-CoV-2 variants by genome sequencing indicated that the cat was infected with an early SARS-CoV-2 lineage. The three dogs and three tigers were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of concern (B.1.617.2). The role of non-human species in the onward transmission and emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 remain poorly defined. Continued surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in relevant domestic and captive animal species with high levels of human contact is important to monitor transmission at the human−animal interface and to assess their role as potential animal reservoirs.

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“…For further confirmatory testing, the horse samples with suspect positive results in the RBD-ELISA were sent to the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research for pseudotype-based virus neutralization assays (PVNA), which have been previously described [ 23 ]. HIV (SARS-CoV-2) pseudotypes were prepared that expressed a luciferase gene and either B.1, Alpha, Delta, Omicron BA.1 or BA.2 spike proteins.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Serological and Molecular Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in Horses and Cattle in Switzerland from 2020 to 2022

Hüttl,

Reitt,

Meli

et al. 2024

Viruses

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Horses and cattle have shown low susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, and there is no evidence of experimental intraspecies transmission. Nonetheless, seropositive horses in the US and seropositive cattle in Germany and Italy have been reported. The current study investigated the prevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in horses and cattle in Switzerland. In total, 1940 serum and plasma samples from 1110 horses and 830 cattle were screened with a species-specific ELISA based on the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and, in the case of suspect positive results, a surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) was used to demonstrate the neutralizing activity of the antibodies. Further confirmation of suspect positive samples was performed using either a pseudotype-based virus neutralization assay (PVNA; horses) or an indirect immunofluorescence test (IFA; cattle). The animals were sampled between February 2020 and December 2022. Additionally, in total, 486 bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL), oropharyngeal, nasal and rectal swab samples from horses and cattle were analyzed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA via reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Six horses (0.5%; 95% CI: 0.2–1.2%) were suspect positive via RBD-ELISA, and neutralizing antibodies were detected in two of them via confirmatory sVNT and PVNA tests. In the PVNA, the highest titers were measured against the Alpha and Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants. Fifteen cattle (1.8%; 95% CI: 1.0–3.0%) were suspect positive in RBD-ELISA; 3 of them had SARS-CoV-2-specific neutralizing antibodies in sVNT and 4 of the 15 were confirmed to be positive via IFA. All tested samples were RT-qPCR-negative. The results support the hypotheses that the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in horses and cattle in Switzerland was low up to the end of 2022.

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Increase in SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in UK Domestic Felids Despite Weak Immunogenicity of Post-Omicron Variants

Cited by 4 publications

References 71 publications

A retrospective study of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in dogs and cats in the Community of Madrid, Spain

A retrospective study of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in dogs and cats in the Community of Madrid, Spain

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant (B.1.617.2) in Domestic Dogs and Zoo Tigers in England and Jersey during 2021

Serological and Molecular Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 in Horses and Cattle in Switzerland from 2020 to 2022

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