A US study uploaded onto the bioRxiv preprint server showed that pets with SARS-CoV-2 likely acquired the virus from humans.
This suggests that human-animal infection may actually occur much more frequently than previously thought – implying that infected individuals should limit their contact with animals. The paper is currently available on the bioRxiv* preprint server.
Both natural and experimental infections with SARS-CoV-2 have been demonstrated in various species of pets, which includes dogs, cats, hamsters, rabbits, and ferrets. Hamsters, cats and ferrets have been shown to transmit the virus to each other, and dogs are still weakly susceptible to the virus. However, natural infections of pets have almost always resulted from contact with a COVID-infected person.
Since pets share so much space with humans, this is a good use of the One Health approach, a transdisciplinary collaboration aiming for health outcomes through awareness of the interconnectedness between people, animals, plants and their mutual environment.
As part of a COVID household transmission investigation, researchers in the US conducted a One Health appraisal of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pet cohabitants as one of the earliest research endeavours in assessing risk and behavioral factors shared between people and pets.
The study was conducted between April and May of 2020, and mammalian pets from households with at least one individual with confirmed COVID were eligible for inclusion. Detailed descriptions of each animal’s residence were made.
Demographic and exposure information was obtained from all household members. At the same time, the pets were tested with the use of real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) and neutralisation assays from oropharyngeal, nasal, rectal, fur, faecal, and blood samples.
The small sample size of this study made it difficult to analyse prevention measures in the home, so additional investigations are needed in order to determine the best methods to prevent human-pet COVID transmission.
All oropharyngeal, nasal, and rectal swabs from the tested animals tested negative when rRT-PCR was conducted; however, fur swabs from the one dog tested positive with the use of this molecular method at the first animal sampling. This is actually the first study to detect RNA of a virus from an animal’s fur.
Furthermore, in households where owners withs COVID lived with their pets, 20% had pets with serological evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, implying some secondary viral transmission. Four dogs and four cats from six households were found to have detectable neutralising antibodies against the virus.
In households with higher rates of human COVID infections, SARS-CoV-2 was more likely to be seen in pets, while much less common when owners limited interactions with their pets after they had developed COVID symptoms.
The authors stressed that it is still important for decision-makers to understand the role of animals in the epidemiology of the pandemic
“Our findings add to the growing body of evidence demonstrating SARS-CoV-2 transmission can occur between people and pets – most often from people to pets – and suggest this transmission may occur more frequently than previously recognized”, wrote the authors of the bioRxiv paper.
Source: News-Medical.Net
Journal information: Goryoka, G.W. et al. (2021). One Health Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Seropositivity among Pets in Households with Confirmed Human COVID-19 Cases — Utah and Wisconsin, 2020. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.11.439379, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.11.439379v1
