The coronavirus has already infected more than 780,000 people around the planet, and the authorities in every country are now trying to contain this threat. One of the most pressing questions remains: do pets contribute to the spread of the virus?
A cat from Belgium recently tested positive for the genome of the current outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This sparked widespread panic among pet owners, who thought that pets could spread the disease.
However, a new study showed that this cat did not have the coronavirus as we know it, and humans cannot be infected from their pets. However, most likely, people infected with the virus may well 'share' it with animals.
The standard SARS-CoV-2 test only detects the viral genome and does not necessarily reflect whether they are SARS-CoV-2. The virus found in the cat was found in a stool sample, according to veterinarians from the University of Liege in Belgium.
However, this suggests that the cat ate some kind of contaminated food, and the virus passed through it harmlessly without infecting the cat itself. Here is what Sara Caddy, Fellow of Viral Immunology and a Cambridge University veterinarian, noted in her article for The Conversation:
'The owner of the cat has recently tested positive for the virus. The cat reportedly developed breathing problems and diarrhea after a week. Veterinarians at the University of Liege in Belgium then tested the cat for SARS-CoV-2 and then found the viral genome in the vomit and stool sample. '
'Should we be worried about the spread of the virus among cats now? Not at the moment. Several key questions need to be answered before any conclusions can be drawn from this case. Many people ask if the coronavirus found in cats is really SARS-CoV-2, or if it could be a completely different, feline coronavirus that has been infecting cats around the world for decades. '
“Fortunately, there is still no evidence that pets can transmit the virus to humans. It is also encouraging that a major veterinary diagnostic laboratory recently said it tested thousands of cat and dog samples for SARS-CoV-2 without any positive cases. '
So far, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases has exceeded 780,000 – in 198 countries. The death toll from this disease also exceeded 37,000. At the moment, the United States is becoming the most infected country in the world.
