And it will be a difficult question to answer, he added, “since we could never expose an uninfected person to an infected cat to determine if a cat-to-man transmission would occur.”
Still, Poulsen suggested that while the possibility cannot be ruled out, it is not too worrying.
“We have no evidence that any pet plays a major role in transmission to humans,” he said, “with the exception of ferrets and minks. The chances of this happening at a significant rate or requiring intervention are low but not zero “.
His conclusion: “We still do not believe that cats or dogs are significant actors in the ecology of COVID-19 disease in people, animals, or the environment,” Poulsen stressed.
Maybe so, but the study authors concluded that “it will be important to control transmission between humans, cats to cats and cats to humans.”
As for the canines, both Hosie and Poulsen agreed that dogs seem to dominate their feline friends when it comes to humans. coronavirus vulnerability.
“Dogs are infectious, but less often than cats,” Hosie said.
Poulsen agreed, noting that “science points to cats being more likely to replicate viruses than dogs.”
The study was published on April 22 at Veterinary record.
More information
There is more information on pet health at United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Margaret J. Hosie, PhD, Professor, Comparative Virology, MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research, Bearsden, Glasgow, UK; Dorothee Bienzle, DVM, Professor, Veterinary Pathology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada; Keith Poulsen, DVM, PhD, DACVIM, Clinical Associate Professor, Internal Medicine of Large Animals and Director, Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Veterinary record, April 22, 2021
