Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) infection and humoral responses against different variants of concern in domestic pet animals and stray cats from North‐Eastern Spain

Abstract

Summary Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), the causative agent of the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic in humans, is able to infect several domestic, captive and wildlife animal species. Since reverse zoonotic transmission to pets has been demonstrated, it is crucial to determine their role in the epidemiology of the disease to prevent further spillover events and major spreads of SARS‐CoV‐2. In the present study, we determined the presence of virus and the seroprevalence to SARS‐CoV‐2, as well as the levels of neutralizing antibodies (nAbs) against several variants of concern (VOCs) in pets (cats, dogs and ferrets) and stray cats from North‐Eastern of Spain. We confirmed that cats and dogs can be infected by different VOCs of SARS‐CoV‐2 and, together with ferrets, are able to develop nAbs against the ancestral (B.1), Alpha (B.1.1.7), Beta (B.1.315), Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (BA.1) variants, with lower titres against the latest in dogs and cats, but not in ferrets. Although the prevalence of active SARS‐CoV‐2 infection measured as direct viral RNA detection was low (0.3%), presence of nAbs in pets living in COVID‐19 positive households was relatively high (close to 25% in cats, 10% in dogs and 40% in ferrets). It is essential to continue monitoring SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in these animals due to their frequent contact with human populations, and we cannot discard the probability of a higher animal susceptibility to new potential SARS‐CoV‐2 VOCs. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Dogs and cats are less susceptible to the omicron variant of concern of SARS-CoV-2 – a field study

“…when delta represented the dominant VOC in the human population of Germany, a high proportion of cats and dogs was infected by contact to their virus-positive owners. This is in line with previous household studies conducted prior to 2022, where seroprevalences well over 10 % were consistently found, independent of the study area, time and VOC circulating at that time (Fernández-Bastit et al, 2022; Fritz et al, 2021; Goryoka et al, 2021; Meisner et al, 2022). Therefore, cats and dogs appear to be susceptible to the wildtype virus and the earlier VOCs up to delta, which was confirmed for the wild-type virus also by experimental infection (Bosco-Lauth et al, 2020; Shi et al, 2020).…”

“…Hence, the results of the random sampling confirmed that of the household study, that is, a lower ratio of seroconversions against the omicron VOC. Overall, several studies demonstrated lower prevalences in companion animals with unknown household status (Fernández-Bastit et al, 2022; Kannekens-Jager et al, 2022), but given the high prevalence of infections with omicron’s subvariants in the human population during the first half of the year 2022 (Robert-Koch-Institut, 2022b), at least single seropositive cats are to be expected. Indeed, antibodies against earlier VOCs could be detected, even though the circulation of non-omicron-VOCs was some time ago and although previous studies demonstrated that serum antibody levels decline in cats to the limit of detection within only a few months (Schulz et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2020).…”

“…During the first months of the pandemic, relatively small proportions of seropositive animals (< 5 %) were found in randomly selected samples, while higher seroprevalences were observed in pets as the pandemic progressed and the number of cases in humans increased sharply worldwide (Dileepan et al, 2021; Ito et al, 2021; Jairak, Charoenkul, et al, 2022; Kaczorek-Łukowska et al, 2022; Michelitsch, Hoffmann, Wernike, & Beer, 2020; Patterson et al, 2020). Particularly high seroprevalences were recorded when cats and dogs from households with human COVID-19 patients were sampled (Fernández-Bastit et al, 2022; Kannekens-Jager et al, 2022; Meisner et al, 2022).…”

Rising SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence and Patterns of Cross-Variant Antibody Neutralization in UK Domestic Cats

“…Cats have also been found to produce a neutralizing antibody response against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants (33).…”

“…It has been demonstrated experimentally that domestic cats mount a neutralizing antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 that prevents re-infection from a second viral challenge ( 16 ) and a feline IgG response has been detected against both the nucleocapsid and spike proteins via ELISA ( 31, 32 ). Cats have also been found to produce a neutralizing antibody response against multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants ( 33 ).…”