SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Dogs and Cats from Southern Germany and Northern Italy during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Herman Egberink,Carlo Palizzotto,Shan Zhao,Federico Porporato,Marina L. Meli,Julia Klaus,Regina Hofmann-Lehmann,Francesco Rossi,Vittoria Franco,Michèle Bergmann,Eric Zini,Katrin Hartmann,Anja Kipar

doi:10.3390/v13081453

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has affected millions of people globally since its first detection in late 2019. Besides humans, cats and, to some extent, dogs were shown to be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, highlighting the need for surveillance in a One Health context. Seven veterinary clinics from regions with high incidences of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) were recruited during the early pandemic (March to July 2020) for the screening of patients. A total of 2257 oropharyngeal and nasal swab specimen from 877 dogs and 260 cats (including 18 animals from COVID-19-affected households and 92 animals with signs of respiratory disease) were analyzed for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using reverse transcriptase real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) targeting the viral envelope (E) and RNA dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) genes. One oropharyngeal swab from an Italian cat, living in a COVID-19-affected household in Piedmont, tested positive in RT-qPCR (1/260; 0.38%, 95% CI: 0.01–2.1%), and SARS-CoV-2 infection of the animal was serologically confirmed six months later. One oropharyngeal swab from a dog was potentially positive (1/877; 0.1%, 95% CI: 0.002–0.63%), but the result was not confirmed in a reference laboratory. Analyses of convenience sera from 118 animals identified one dog (1/94; 1.1%; 95% CI: 0.02–5.7%) from Lombardy, but no cats (0/24), as positive for anti-SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies and neutralizing activity. These findings support the hypothesis that the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pet cat and dog populations, and hence, the risk of zoonotic transmission to veterinary staff, was low during the first wave of the pandemic, even in hotspot areas.

Highlights

After the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) in humans in late 2019, the susceptibility of animals and the implications of this novel coronavirus at the human–animal interface, i.e., in a One Health context, became a widely-researched topic [1,2,3]
In a factsheet published in May 2021, the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) lists cats as highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and dogs as less susceptible than cats, based on the data published to date [43]
We found the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infections to be low among the dogs and cats presented to veterinary clinics during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in hotspot areas

Summary

Introduction

After the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2) in humans in late 2019, the susceptibility of animals and the implications of this novel coronavirus at the human–animal interface, i.e., in a One Health context, became a widely-researched topic [1,2,3]. At that time, the first reports of sporadic SARS-CoV-2 infection in dogs and cats after suspected human-to-animal transmission [2,5,6] became public. For host cell binding and entry, the viral spike protein on the membrane surface of SARS-CoV-2 uses a host cell receptor that is widespread among mammals, i.e., the angiotensin converting enzyme. Ferrets, Syrian hamsters, mink, gorillas, and macaques have been found to be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, and transmission to cohoused animals was reported in these species [11]. Dogs were shown to have a lower susceptibility than cats [3,12]; in both species, natural SARS-CoV-2 infections have been reported [2,5]

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