Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been detected in domestic and wild cats. However, little is known about natural viral infections of domestic cats, although their importance for modelling disease spread, informing strategies for managing positive human-animal relationships and disease prevention. Here, we describe the SARS-CoV-2 infection in a household of two human adults and sibling cats (one male and two females) using real-time RT–PCR, an ELISA test, viral sequencing, and virus isolation. On May 5th, 2020, the cat-owners tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. Two days later, the male cat showed mild respiratory symptoms and tested positive. Four days after the male cat, the two female cats became positive, asymptomatically. Also, one human and one cat showed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2. All cats excreted detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA for a shorter duration than humans and viral sequences analysis confirmed human-to-cat transmission. We could not determine if cat-to-cat transmission also occurred.

Details

Title
A household case evidences shorter shedding of SARS-CoV-2 in naturally infected cats compared to their human owners
Author
Neira, Víctor 1 ; Brito, Bárbara 2 ; Agüero, Belén 1 ; Berrios, Felipe 1 ; Valdés, Valentina 1 ; Gutierrez, Alberto 1 ; Ariyama, Naomi 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Espinoza, Patricio 1 ; Retamal, Patricio 1 ; Holmes, Edward C 3 ; Gonzalez-Reiche, Ana S 4 ; Khan, Zenab 4 ; van de Guchte, Adriana 4 ; Dutta, Jayeeta 4 ; Miorin, Lisa 5 ; Kehrer, Thomas 6 ; Galarce, Nicolás 1 ; Almonacid, Leonardo I 7 ; Levican, Jorge 7 ; Harm van Bakel 8 ; García-Sastre, Adolfo 9 ; Medina, Rafael A 10 

1  Facultad de Ciencias Veterinarias y Pecuarias, Departamento de Medicina Preventiva, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile 
2  The three institute – University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia 
3  School of Life and Environmental Sciences and School of Medical Sciences, Marie Bashir Institute for Infectious Diseases and Biosecurity, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia 
4  Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
5  Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
6  Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
7  Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas e Inmunología Pediátrica, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 
8  Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Icahn Institute for Data Science and Genomic Technology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
9  Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; The Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA 
10  Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Departamento de Enfermedades Infecciosas e Inmunología Pediátrica, Escuela de Medicina, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile 
Pages
376-383
Publication year
2021
Publication date
Dec 2021
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
e-ISSN
22221751
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/22221751.2020.1863132
ProQuest document ID
3190428857
Copyright
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, on behalf of Shanghai Shangyixun Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.