Anthropogenic Infection of Cats during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Clinical Laboratory, Department of Clinical Diagnostics and Services, Center for Clinical Studies, Vetsuisse Faculty, University of Zurich, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland

Clinic of Small Animal Medicine, Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, 80539 Munich, Germany

⁴

Department of Biomolecular Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, 3584 CL Utrecht, The Netherlands

⁵

Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, University of Leipzig, 04103 Leipzig, Germany

⁶

Maison Zabal, 64470 Etchebar, France

⁷

Department of Biomedical Sciences and Veterinary Public Health (BVF), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Box 7036, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden

⁸

Scanelis Laboratory, 31770 Colomiers, France

⁹

Department of Small Animal Diseases with Clinic, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland

¹⁰

Fundació Hospital Clínic Veterinari, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, 08193 Barcelona, Spain

¹¹

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Teramo, 64100 Teramo, Italy

¹²

Dipartimento di Scienze Veterinarie, Università di Messina, 98168 Messina, Italy

¹³

Bristol Veterinary School, University of Bristol, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK

¹⁴

Linnaeus Group, Shirley, Solihull B90 4BN, UK

¹⁵

Veterinary Virology and Animal Viral Diseases, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, FARAH Research Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège University, B-4000 Liège, Belgium

¹⁶

Institute of Virology, Department for Pathobiology, University of Veterinary Medicine, 1210 Vienna, Austria

Show full affiliation list

Hide full affiliation list

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Academic Editor: Julia A. Beatty

Viruses 2021, 13(2), 185; https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020185

Received: 30 December 2020 / Revised: 19 January 2021 / Accepted: 21 January 2021 / Published: 26 January 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Viral Infections in Companion Animals)

View Full-Text Download PDF Citation Export

Abstract

COVID-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) caused by a new coronavirus (CoV), SARS-CoV-2, which is closely related to SARS-CoV that jumped the animal–human species barrier and caused a disease outbreak in 2003. SARS-CoV-2 is a betacoronavirus that was first described in 2019, unrelated to the commonly occurring feline coronavirus (FCoV) that is an alphacoronavirus associated with feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). SARS-CoV-2 is highly contagious and has spread globally within a few months, resulting in the current pandemic. Felids have been shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Particularly in the Western world, many people live in very close contact with their pet cats, and natural infections of cats in COVID-19-positive households have been described in several countries. In this review, the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD), a scientifically independent board of experts in feline medicine from 11 European Countries, discusses the current status of SARS-CoV infections in cats. The review examines the host range of SARS-CoV-2 and human-to-animal transmissions, including infections in domestic and non-domestic felids, as well as mink-to-human/-cat transmission. It summarises current data on SARS-CoV-2 prevalence in domestic cats and the results of experimental infections of cats and provides expert opinions on the clinical relevance and prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infection in cats. View Full-Text

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; domestic cats; wild felids; companion animals; minks; experimental infection; human-to-feline transmission; one health

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Hosie, M.J.; Hofmann-Lehmann, R.; Hartmann, K.; Egberink, H.; Truyen, U.; Addie, D.D.; Belák, S.; Boucraut-Baralon, C.; Frymus, T.; Lloret, A.; Lutz, H.; Marsilio, F.; Pennisi, M.G.; Tasker, S.; Thiry, E.; Möstl, K. Anthropogenic Infection of Cats during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. Viruses 2021, 13, 185. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020185

AMA Style

Hosie MJ, Hofmann-Lehmann R, Hartmann K, Egberink H, Truyen U, Addie DD, Belák S, Boucraut-Baralon C, Frymus T, Lloret A, Lutz H, Marsilio F, Pennisi MG, Tasker S, Thiry E, Möstl K. Anthropogenic Infection of Cats during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. Viruses. 2021; 13(2):185. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020185

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hosie, Margaret J., Regina Hofmann-Lehmann, Katrin Hartmann, Herman Egberink, Uwe Truyen, Diane D. Addie, Sándor Belák, Corine Boucraut-Baralon, Tadeusz Frymus, Albert Lloret, Hans Lutz, Fulvio Marsilio, Maria G. Pennisi, Séverine Tasker, Etienne Thiry, and Karin Möstl. 2021. "Anthropogenic Infection of Cats during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic" Viruses 13, no. 2: 185. https://doi.org/10.3390/v13020185

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

Anthropogenic Infection of Cats during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI