https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.13.580068v1
"Both domestic and non-domestic cats are now established to be susceptible to
infection by SARS-CoV-2, the cause of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While
serious disease in cats may occur in some instances, the majority of infections
appear to be subclinical. Differing prevalence data for SARS-CoV-2 infection of
cats have been reported, and are highly context-dependent. Here, we report a
retrospective serological survey of cats presented to an animal practice in New
York City, located in close proximity to a large medical center that treated
the first wave of COVID-19 patients in the US in the Spring of 2020. We sampled
79, mostly indoor, cats between June 2020 to May 2021, the early part of which
time the community was under a strict public health “lock-down”. Using a highly
sensitive and specific fluorescent bead-based multiplex assay, we found an
overall prevalence of 13/79 (16%) serologically-positive animals for the study
period; however, cats sampled in the Fall of 2020 had a confirmed positive
prevalence of 44%. For SARS-CoV-2 seropositive cats, we performed viral
neutralization test with live SARS-CoV-2 to additionally confirm presence of
SARS-CoV-2 specific antibodies. Of the thirteen seropositive cats, 7/13 (54%)
were also positive by virus neutralization, and 2 of seropositive cats had
previously documented respiratory signs, with high neutralization titers of
1:1024 and 1:4096; overall however, there was no statistically significant
association of SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity with respiratory signs, or with breed,
sex or age of the animals. Follow up sampling of cats, while limited in scope,
showed that positive serological titers were maintained over time. In
comparison, we found an overall confirmed positive prevalence of 51% for feline
coronavirus (FCoV), an endemic virus of cats, with 30% confirmed negative for
FCoV. We demonstrate the impact of SARS-CoV in a defined feline population
during the first wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection of humans, and suggest that
human-cat transmission was substantial in our study group. Our data provide a
new context for SARS-CoV-2 transmission events across species."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: March 7, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-99907491
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
