Susceptibility of Pets to SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Lessons from a Seroepidemiologic Survey of Cats and Dogs in Portugal

• Published in: Microorganisms (Basel) Vol. 10; no. 2; p. 345
• Main Authors: Barroso, Ricardo, Vieira-Pires, Alexandre, Antunes, Agostinho, Fidalgo-Carvalho, Isabel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 02.02.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Animal human relations; Animal shelters; Animals; Antibodies; Cats; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); Coronaviruses; COVID-19; diagnosis; Dogs; Domestic animals; epidemiology; Households; one-health; Pandemics; Pets; Polls & surveys; Respiratory diseases; Risk analysis; Risk factors; RNA viruses; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Viral diseases; Wild animals; Portugal; one-health; epidemiology; SARS-CoV-2; cats; coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); dogs; diagnosis; zoonosis
• ISSN: 2076-2607; 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10020345

Betacoronavirus (β-CoV) are positive single-stranded RNA viruses known to infect mammals. In 2019, a novel zoonotic β-CoV emerged, the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2. Although the most frequent SARS-CoV-2 transmission route is within humans, spillover from humans to domestic and wild animals has been reported, including cats ( ), dogs ( ), and minks ( ). In order to understand the potential role of domestic animals in SARS-CoV-2 global transmission, as well their susceptibility to infection, a seroepidemiologic survey of cats and dogs in Portugal was conducted. Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 15/69 (21.74%) cats and 7/148 (4.73%) dogs. Of the SARS-CoV-2 seropositive animals, 11/22 (50.00%) were possibly infected by human-to-animal transmission, and 5/15 (33.33%) cats were probably infected by cat-to-cat transmission. Moreover, one dog tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Data suggest that cats and dogs are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection in natural conditions. Hence, a one-health approach is crucial in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to understand the risk factors beyond infection in a human-animal environment interface.