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And it will be a tough question, she added, “since we could never expose an uninfected person to an infected cat to see if there would be cat-to-human transmission.”
Still, Poulsen suggested that while the possibility cannot be ruled out, it is not unduly worrisome.
“We have no evidence that pets play a significant role in re-transmission to humans,” he said, “with the exception of ferrets and minks. The likelihood that this will result in a significant or interventional rate is slim.” but not zero. “
His conclusion: “We still do not believe that cats or dogs are important players in the disease ecology of COVID-19 in humans, animals or the environment,” emphasized Poulsen.
Perhaps, but the study’s authors concluded that “it will be important to monitor human-to-cat, cat-to-cat, and cat-to-human transmission”.
With dogs, both Hosie and Poulsen seem to agree that dogs have the upper hand over their feline friends when it comes to susceptibility to human coronavirus.
“Dogs are infectious, but less common than cats,” said Hosie.
Poulsen agreed, noting that “science points to the fact that cats are likely to replicate more viruses than dogs.”
The study was published on April 22nd on the Veterinary Record.
More information
Learn more about pet health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Margaret J. Hosie, PhD, Professor of Comparative Virology, MRC University of Glasgow, Center for Virus Research, Bearsden, Glasgow, UK; Dorothee Bienzle, DVM, Professor of Veterinary Pathology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Keith Poulsen, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, Clinical Associate Professor, Large Animal Internal Medicine and Director, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Veterinary Record, April 22, 2021
