Cats can pass the coronavirus to each other, study finds

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Coronavirus can infect cats, study finds

A new study finds that humans aren't the only ones susceptible to COVID-19 infections. Ferrets and cats can also catch the deadly virus.

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Cats can pass the novel coronavirus to each other, even if they don’t show symptoms, according to a study released this week that aimed to better understand how the virus affects felines.

The study —  which was published on Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and was conducted by researchers with the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, The University of Tokyo and other researchers in the U.S. and Japan — incorporated six cats, three of which were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes a COVID-19 infection.

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The other three were then exposed to the inoculated cats; each healthy cat was housed in a cage with one of the infected felines to “assess whether transmission of the virus by direct contact would occur between the cats in each of the three pairs,” the researchers wrote.

Soon after, the virus was detected in all three of the previously uninfected cats, nasal swabs showed.

“The cats with no previous infection were cohoused with the inoculated cats on day one. Two days later (day three), one of the cats with no previous infection had infectious virus detected in a nasal swab specimen, and five days later, virus was detected in all three cats that were cohoused with the inoculated cats,” they said.

The cats shed virus particles for four to five days, and all were virus-free after six days. However, none of the cats showed any symptoms of the virus during the time its genetic material was detectable, the researchers said.

Since the pandemic began, there have been various reports of cats — both domestic and wild — contracting the virus from humans. A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York, for instance, tested positive for the coronavirus in early April after likely being exposed to it by an infected worker. Then, later that same month, two cats in New York became the first pets in the U.S. to test positive.

Though experts maintain there is limited evidence at this time that suggests pets can spread the virus to humans, the researchers in the study published in the NEJM said their findings back up the “public health need to recognize and further investigate the potential chain of human–cat–human transmission.”

“This is of particular importance given the potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission between family members in households with cats while living under ‘shelter-in-place’ orders, they wrote, noting that cats “may be a silent intermediate host of SARS-CoV-2, because infected cats may not show any appreciable symptoms that might be recognized by their owners.”

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“Given the need to stop the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic through various mechanisms, including breaking transmission chains, a better understanding of the role cats may play in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans is needed,” the researchers concluded.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) offers guidance to pet owners amid the pandemic, advising any sick owners to "restrict contact with your pets and other animals, just like you would with people" until COVID-19 is better understood.