Zoonotic Risk: One More Good Reason Why Cats Should Be Kept Away from Bats

Abstract

Bats are often unfairly depicted as the direct culprit in the current COVID-19 pandemic, yet the real causes of this and other zoonotic spillover events should be sought in the human impact on the environment, including the spread of domestic animals. Here, we discuss bat predation by cats as a phenomenon bringing about zoonotic risks and illustrate cases of observed, suspected or hypothesized pathogen transmission from bats to cats, certainly or likely following predation episodes. In addition to well-known cases of bat rabies, we review other diseases that affect humans and might eventually reach them through cats that prey on bats. We also examine the potential transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the causal agent of COVID-19, from domestic cats to bats, which, although unlikely, might generate a novel wildlife reservoir in these mammals, and identify research and management directions to achieve more effective risk assessment, mitigation or prevention. Overall, not only does bat killing by cats represent a potentially serious threat to biodiversity conservation, but it also bears zoonotic implications that can no longer be neglected.

A First Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Circulation in Bats of Central–Southern Italy

“…While contacts between bats and humans are rare and restricted to certain categories, the hypothesis that predation on bats by domestic cats might favour the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from humans to bats cannot be ruled out [ 13 ]. Domestic cats are well-known predators of over 45 bat species, and due to their frequent interactions with people, they might act as SARS-CoV-2 intermediate hosts between humans and bats [ 13 ].…”

“…Although SARS-CoV-2 has never been observed in bats to date, viruses that are highly similar to SARS-CoV2 have been isolated in these mammals [ 11 ]: it is, therefore, legitimate to hypothesize that bats are more exposed than other species to being infected by humans. This is especially true since many bat species roost in urban areas, where they share buildings with humans [ 12 ], fall victim to domestic cats, which might provide an epidemiological link [ 13 ], and are handled by bat rehabilitators or researchers [ 14 , 15 ]. Despite experimental research failing to prove a significant risk of SARS-CoV-2 reverse zoonosis involving bats [ 16 , 17 ], studies on captive subjects do not fully replicate the epidemiological dynamics and environmental conditions that occur in the wild, so their outcomes warrant prudence [ 9 ].…”

COVID‐19, media coverage of bats and related Web searches: a turning point for bat conservation?

“…Bats are often indicated as special reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens (Brook & Dobson 2015), and indeed, they were involved in the spillover of some important zoonotic viruses, such as Ebola, Nipah, Hendra, and SARS-like coronaviruses (Olival et al 2015). However, on many other occasions, although bats were a reservoir of pathogens, these spilled over to humans from different species of wildlife or domestic animals (Salinas-Ramos et al 2021). Although bats have physiological and ecological traits, which make them effective viral reservoirs (e.g.…”

Popular press portrayal of issues surrounding free‐roaming domestic cats Felis catus

“…Cats that live or are allowed outdoors unsupervised (i.e. free-roaming cats) may have devasting impacts on wildlife through hunting, capturing, and killing animals (Blancher, 2013;Dickman & Newsome, 2015;Doherty et al, 2015;Piontek et al, 2020); they may transmit disease to other animals (Day et al, 2012;Salinas-Ramos et al, 2021) and may threaten native felids through hybridization (Fredriksen, 2016). Freeroaming cats also pose risks to public health (Gerhold & Jessup, 2013) and are a public nuisance (e.g.…”