Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 from humans to a 16‐year‐old domestic cat with comorbidities in Pennsylvania, USA

Tewari, Deepanker; Boger, Lore; Brady, Steven; Livengood, Julia; Killian, Mary Lea; Nair, Meera Surendran; Thirumalapura, Nagaraja; Kuchipudi, Suresh V.; Zellers, Corey; Schroder, Betsy; Torchetti, Mia Kim; Carpenter, Ann; Kunkel, Amber; Brightbill, Kevin

doi:10.1002/vms3.695

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Non-infectious comorbidities such as hypertension, heart diseases, obesity, chronic kidney and respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, and cancer were shown to increase the risk of the development of severe disease in humans with COVID-19 [ 53 , 54 , 55 ]. The presence of non-infectious comorbidities, such as intestinal B-cell lymphoma [ 56 ] and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy [ 57 , 58 ], was also reported in SARS-CoV-2-infected cats, and it was associated with moderate, severe, or even fatal disease. Despite the clinical condition of Cat 3, in whom the presence of FIV infection was associated with a neoplasm (basal cell carcinoma), the owners did not notice the presence of clinical signs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Client-Owned Cats from Portugal

Oliveira

Pereira

Mateus

et al. 2022

Veterinary Sciences

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The close contact between humans and domestic cats raises concerns about the potential risks of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. Thus, this study aims to investigate anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroprevalence in client-owned cats from Portugal and evaluate the infection risk of cats that maintain contact with human COVID-19 cases. A total of 176 cats, belonging to 94 households, were sampled. Cat owners answered an online questionnaire, and cats were screened for antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 using a commercial ELISA. Twenty (21.3%) households reported at least one confirmed human COVID-19 case. Forty cats (22.7%) belonged to a COVID-19-positive and 136 (77.3%) to a COVID-19-negative household. The seroprevalences of cats from COVID-19-positive and -negative households were 5.0% (2/40) and 0.7% (1/136). The two SARS-CoV-2-seropositive cats from COVID-19-positive households had an indoor lifestyle, and their owners stated that they maintained a close and frequent contact with them, even after being diagnosed with COVID-19, pointing towards human-to-cat transmission. The SARS-CoV-2-seropositive cat from the COVID-19-negative household had a mixed indoor/outdoor lifestyle and chronic diseases. Owners of the three SARS-CoV-2-seropositive cats did not notice clinical signs or behavior changes. This study highlights the low risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from COVID-19-positive human household members to domestic cats, even in a context of close and frequent human–animal contact.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Client-Owned Cats from Portugal

Oliveira

Pereira

Mateus

et al. 2022

Veterinary Sciences

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“…Whole-genome sequencing was performed at the NVSL as previously described [9,23]. Viral RNA was amplified by tiling PCR and libraries were prepared using the Nextera XT DNA Sample Preparation Kit according to manufacturer instructions (Illumina, San Diego, CA, USA).…”

Section: Sequencing and Bioinformatic Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

SARS-CoV-2 Infection Dynamics in the Pittsburgh Zoo Wild Felids with Two Viral Variants (Delta and Alpha) during the 2021–2022 Pandemic in the United States

Tewari,

Miller,

Livengood

et al. 2023

Animals

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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been reported in multiple animal species besides humans. The goal of this study was to report clinical signs, infection progression, virus detection and antibody response in a group of wild felids housed in adjacent but neighboring areas at the Pittsburgh Zoo. Initially, five African lions (Panthera leo krugeri) housed together exhibited respiratory clinical signs with viral shedding in their feces in March of 2021 coinciding with infection of an animal keeper. During the second infection wave in December 2021, four Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and a Canadian lynx (Lynx canadensis) showed clinical signs and tested positive for viral RNA in feces. In infected animals, viral shedding in feces was variable lasting up to 5 weeks and clinical signs were observed for up to 4 weeks. Despite mounting an antibody response to initial exposure, lions exhibited respiratory clinical signs during the second infection wave, but none shed the virus in their feces. The lions were positive for alpha variant (B.1.1.7 lineage) during the first wave and the tiger and lynx were positive for delta variant (AY.25.1. lineage) during the second wave. The viruses recovered from felids were closely related to variants circulating in human populations at the time of the infection. Cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) in the park did not show either the clinical signs or the antibody response.

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“…Thus, these case studies evidence that cats from affected households are at higher risk of infection compared to those without exposure to SARS-CoV-2. On the other hand, fatal or severe clinical manifestations in SARS-CoV-2-infected cats have been seen, mainly related to cat comorbidities [22,[27][28][29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Potential Role of Cats (Felis catus) as Generators of Relevant SARS-CoV-2 Lineages during the Pandemic

Gomez-Romero,

Basurto-Alcantara,

Velazquez-Salinas

2023

Pathogens

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Several questions regarding the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 remain poorly elucidated. One of these questions is the possible evolutionary impact of SARS-CoV-2 after the infection in domestic animals. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the potential role of cats as generators of relevant SARS-CoV-2 lineages during the pandemic. A total of 105 full-length genome viral sequences obtained from naturally infected cats during the pandemic were evaluated by distinct evolutionary algorithms. Analyses were enhanced, including a set of highly related SARS-CoV-2 sequences recovered from human populations. Our results showed the apparent high susceptibility of cats to the infection SARS-CoV-2 compared with other animal species. Evolutionary analyses indicated that the phylogenomic characteristics displayed by cat populations were influenced by the dominance of specific SARS-CoV-2 genetic groups affecting human populations. However, disparate dN/dS rates at some genes between populations recovered from cats and humans suggested that infection in these two species may suggest a different evolutionary constraint for SARS-CoV-2. Interestingly, the branch selection analysis showed evidence of the potential role of natural selection in the emergence of five distinct cat lineages during the pandemic. Although these lineages were apparently irrelevant to public health during the pandemic, our results suggested that additional studies are needed to understand the role of other animal species in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 during the pandemic.

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Transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 from humans to a 16‐year‐old domestic cat with comorbidities in Pennsylvania, USA

Cited by 9 publications

References 43 publications

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Client-Owned Cats from Portugal

Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in Client-Owned Cats from Portugal

SARS-CoV-2 Infection Dynamics in the Pittsburgh Zoo Wild Felids with Two Viral Variants (Delta and Alpha) during the 2021–2022 Pandemic in the United States

Assessing the Potential Role of Cats (Felis catus) as Generators of Relevant SARS-CoV-2 Lineages during the Pandemic

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