[Animals] Corona Virus: A study confirms that Covid is common among cats and dogs

[Love Pulse]

 

A recent study concluded that Covid disease is common in cats and dogs whose owners have contracted the disease.

Samples were taken from 310 pets in 196 homes of families whose members had contracted the disease.

Samples of 6 cats and 7 dogs came back positive, while antibodies were found in 54 animals.

"If you have Covid, you should avoid contact with your cat and dog as you avoid people. The issue is not about the possibility of transmitting the virus to an animal, but about whether an infected animal transmits the disease to another person," said Dr. Els Bruns of Utrecht University.

 

Most infected animals do not show symptoms.

Researchers from the University of Utrecht have sent a mobile veterinary clinic to homes in the Netherlands whose residents have contracted Covid at some point in the past 200 days.

And samples were taken from the cats and dogs of the owners of those homes and examined to see if they were infected, while samples of their blood were analyzed to examine the possibility of containing antibodies to see if they had contracted Covid at an earlier time.

The results of the study, which were published at a European conference on Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, were as follows:

4.2 percent are infected
Presence of antibodies in 17.4 percent
Subsequent tests showed that the animals that were tested and had a positive result had cleared the infection and produced antibodies.

The researchers say that the strongest possibility of infection is the infection of the animal through humans, not the other way around.

 

 

Dr. Bruns of the Center for Animal Microbiology Diagnostics said, "We cannot say that the risk of transmission from animals to humans is non-existent, but what is currently happening is the transmission of infection from one person to another, so we did not find that this happened."

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But Dr Bronze said, "I don't see scientific evidence of animal transmission now. It seems unlikely that pets play a role in the spread of the epidemic."

Another study conducted by the University of Guelph in the Canadian province of Ontario found that cats that sleep in their owners' beds are susceptible to infection.

A total of 48 cats and 54 dogs from 77 homes were tested for antibodies and their owners were asked about their close contact with the animals.

It was found that 67 percent of cats and 43 percent of dogs were infected, compared to 9 percent of dogs and cats at an animal shelter, and 3 percent of street dogs and cats.

Symptoms of the disease appeared on a quarter of the infected animals, and ranged from loss of appetite to difficulty breathing.

Although the symptoms of most cases were mild, three of them were severe.

The authors of the study said that cats are more susceptible to infection due to their biological nature, as well as the possibility that cats sleep close to the faces of their owners is stronger than in the case of dogs.

Director of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, Professor James Wood, said: "Two studies included additional evidence indicating a strong possibility of transmission from humans to cats and dogs."

He added, "The Dutch study was strong and concluded that about 20 percent of the pets that were exposed to the disease may have been infected and finally recovered from the disease, as happens with humans. It was clear from most reports that this infection appeared to be asymptomatic, and the virus did not appear to be transmitted from animals. to other animals or to humans.