Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA Shedding from Therapy Cat after Cluster Outbreak in Retirement Home

• Published in: Emerging infectious diseases Vol. 27; no. 7; pp. 1974 - 1976
• Main Authors: Schulz, Claudia, Wylezich, Claudia, Wernike, Kerstin, Gründl, Magdalena, Dangel, Alexandra, Baechlein, Christine, Hoffmann, Donata, Röhrs, Susanne, Hepner, Sabrina, Ackermann, Nikolaus, Sing, Andreas, Pink, Isabelle, Länger, Beate, Volk, Holger A, Becher, Paul, Sutter, Gerd, Neubauer-Juric, Antonie, von Köckritz-Blickwede, Maren, Beer, Martin, Volz, Asisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases 01.07.2021; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Subjects: Animals; Antibodies; Cats; Control; coronavirus disease; Coronaviruses; COVID-19; Disease Outbreaks; Disease transmission; Epidemics; Genomes; Germany; Health aspects; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infections; Nursing homes; Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 RNA Shedding from Therapy Cat after Cluster Outbreak in Retirement Home; Research Letter; Retirement; Risk factors; RNA, Viral - genetics; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Statistics; Surveillance; Veterinary medicine; Viral infections; viruses; Zoonoses; Germany; cluster outbreak; viruses; RNA; zoonoses; coronaviruses; shedding; pandemic; respiratory infections; therapy cat; COVID-19; animal reservoir; SARS-CoV-2; severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; retirement home; coronavirus disease; Germany
• ISSN: 1080-6040; 1080-6059
• DOI: 10.3201/eid2707.204670

We report a therapy cat in a nursing home in Germany infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 during a cluster outbreak in the home residents. Although we confirmed prolonged presence of virus RNA in the asymptomatic cat, genome sequencing showed no further role of the cat in human infections on site.