After minks in Denmark and hamsters in Hong Kong, this time it was a domestic cat that was responsible for transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to three people after contracting Covid-19. The case, published on June 6 in the scientific journal Emerging infectious diseasesIt dates from August 2021 and was discovered by accident.
As co-author of the study, Sarunyou Chusri, a 64-year-old man and his 32-year-old son, living in Bangkok, Thailand, explained to the journal Nature, tested positive for covid-19 and were transported to the Prince of Songkla University Hospital. The car ride lasted about 20 hours and was accompanied by the family cat.
At the veterinary hospital of the same university, a veterinarian took samples, through an anal and nasal swab, to confirm if the animal had contracted Covid-19. However, when tested, the cat sneezed in the face of the vet, who was wearing an N95 mask and gloves, but no goggles or acrylic barrier..
Three days later, the vet developed symptoms of fever, sneezing and coughing, and ended up testing positive for the disease; none of her close contacts had tested positive, so the pet was the likely source of the infection. After the cat tested positive, tests at the vet, the feline and its owners revealed they all had the same variant. and that the genome was also the same.
The researchers, however, they believe that cases of cat-to-human transmission are likely to be rare. Experimental studies have shown that domestic cats do not transmit the virus in large numbers, and only do so for a few days.
Source: Observadora
