Re: Evidence Cats Dogs Download Zip
Carey Jangam
SARS-CoV-2 originated in animals and is now easily transmitted between people. Sporadic detection of natural cases in animals alongside successful experimental infections of pets, such as cats, ferrets and dogs, raises questions about the susceptibility of animals under natural conditions of pet ownership. Here we report a large-scale study to assess SARS-CoV-2 infection in 817 companion animals living in northern Italy, sampled at a time of frequent human infection. No animals tested PCR positive. However, 3.4% of dogs and 3.9% of cats had measurable SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers, with dogs from COVID-19 positive households being significantly more likely to test positive than those from COVID-19 negative households. Understanding risk factors associated with this and their potential to infect other species requires urgent investigation.
SARS-CoV-2 emerged from animals and is now easily transmitted between people. Sporadic detection of natural cases in animals alongside successful experimental infections of pets, such as cats, ferrets and dogs, raises questions about the susceptibility of animals under natural conditions of pet ownership. Here, we report a large-scale study to assess SARS-CoV-2 infection in 919 companion animals living in northern Italy, sampled at a time of frequent human infection. No animals tested PCR positive. However, 3.3% of dogs and 5.8% of cats had measurable SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody titers, with dogs from COVID-19 positive households being significantly more likely to test positive than those from COVID-19 negative households. Understanding risk factors associated with this and their potential to infect other species requires urgent investigation.
Cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection were detected in late December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China1, possibly as a spillover from bats to humans2, and rapidly spread worldwide becoming a pandemic3. Although the virus is believed to spread almost exclusively by human-to-human transmission, there are concerns that some animal species may contribute to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic4. To date, sporadic cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been reported in dogs and cats. These include detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory and/or fecal specimens of dogs and cats with or without clinical signs5,6,7, as well as of specific antibodies in sera from pets from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-affected areas7,8. In addition, experimental infection of various animal species has demonstrated that although dogs appear poorly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, developing asymptomatic infections and shedding low titer or no virus, cats develop respiratory pathology and shed high titers of SARS-CoV-2, even being able to infect in-contact animals9,10. Wide-scale testing of susceptible species is needed to assess the extent of animal infection under more natural conditions of husbandry. Here we conducted an extensive epidemiological survey from March to May 2020 in cats and dogs living in Italy, either in SARS-CoV-2-positive households or living in geographic areas that were severely affected by COVID-19. To our knowledge, this is the largest study to investigate SARS-CoV-2 in companion animals to date.
All animals were sampled by their private veterinary surgeon during routine healthcare visits between 15 March and 11 May 2020 (Source data S1). Sampling of animals for this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Bari, Italy (approval number 15/2020). A total of 603 dogs and 316 cats were sampled from different Italian regions, mostly Lombardy (476 dogs, 187 cats). Animals were sampled either from regions severely affected by COVID-19 outbreaks in humans or from those that offered convenient access to samples. Oropharyngeal (303 dogs, 173 cats), nasal (183 dogs, 78 cats), and/or rectal (66 dogs, 30 cats) swabs were collected from a total of 494 pets using synthetic fiber swabs (Table 1). For 340 dogs and 188 cats, full signalment and clinical history were collected, including breed, sex, age, exposure to COVID-19-infected humans in the previous 2 weeks (COVID-19-positive household, suspected COVID-19-positive household but not confirmed by specific assay, and COVID-19-negative household), and the presence of respiratory signs (cough, sneezing, conjunctivitis, nasal and/or ocular discharge). Pets living with SARS-CoV-2-infected patients included 47 dogs and 22 cats for serology and 64 dogs and 57 cats for molecular investigations, with a single animal being sampled from each COVID-19-positive household.
Sera were available for 188 dogs and 63 cats for which complete signalment, history, and location were available (Fig. 1). Additional sera were collected from diagnostic laboratories for 263 dogs and 128 cats from the affected areas, but which lacked further historical information.
All 494 animals from which at least a swab was available tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, including 38 cats and 38 dogs that showed respiratory disease at the time of sampling, suggesting the absence of active SARS-CoV-2 infection in the tested animals. In addition, 64 of these dogs and 57 of the cats that tested negative were living in households previously confirmed as having had COVID-19 and 14 animals (11 cats and 3 dogs) from COVID-19 households were displaying respiratory signs at the time of sampling.
SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies were detected in 15 dogs (3.3%, 15/451) and 11 cats (5.8%, 11/191), with titers ranging from 1:20 to 1:160 and from 1:20 to 1:1280 in dogs and cats, respectively. Of samples from households with known COVID-19 status, neutralizing antibodies were detected in 6 of 47 dogs (12.8%) and 1 of 22 cats (4.5%) from COVID-19-positive households, 1 of 7 dogs (14.3%) and 0 of 3 cats (0%) from suspected COVID-19-positive households, and 2 of 133 dogs (1.5%) and 1 of 38 cats (2.6%) from COVID-19-negative households (Table 2). For those 423 animals where an age was recorded, 0 of 30 aged
Following its original probable transmission to humans from animals, SARS-CoV-2 has spread globally within the human population with devastating health and economic impacts. To date, SARS-CoV-2 has been sporadically detected in naturally infected dogs and cats, most of which were living in close contact with infected humans. Most studies of companion animals are small in nature, likely because of an inevitable research focus on human disease. Our results from this extensive study of SARS-CoV-2 infection in owned pets living in areas where viral transmission was active in the human population confirms field observations that both cats and dogs can seroconvert under the normal conditions of pet ownership.
In this extensive epidemiological survey of SARS-CoV-2, we found that companion animals living in areas of high human infection have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, thus confirming previous reports of natural infections of dogs and cats with the novel coronavirus. Our results suggest that dogs warrant further investigation regarding SARS-CoV-2 susceptibility, although higher antibody titers were detected in cats, which is in agreement with previous studies, suggesting that these animals are most susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection9,18. We also observed seropositivity rates in animals comparable to those of humans via community sampling at a similar time in European countries20,21,22. This suggests that infection in companion animals is not unusual. Based on current knowledge, it is unlikely that infected pets play an active role in SARS-CoV-2 transmission to humans. However, animal-to-human transmission may be more likely under certain environmental conditions, such as the high animal population densities encountered on infected mink farms23. As and when human transmission becomes rarer and contact tracing becomes more accessible, serological surveillance of pets may be advocated to develop a holistic picture of community disease dynamics and ensure that all transmission opportunities are terminated.
For 340 dogs and 188 cats, full signalment and clinical history were available, including breed, sex, age, exposure to COVID-19-infected humans (COVID-19-positive household, suspected COVID-19-positive household but not confirmed by specific assay, and COVID-19-negative household), the presence of respiratory signs (cough, sneezing, conjunctivitis, nasal, and/or ocular discharge).
In veterinary medicine, we are forced to make use of less than ideal "evidence," such as extrapolation from experimental studies in dogs and cats without naturally occurring diseases and from clinical trials in other species (particularly human clinical trials), as well as limited information gained from veterinary clinical experience, small clinical trials, case studies, and anecdotal reports. In this article, specific treatment recommendations are made for each of the common thromboembolic conditions seen in dogs and cats. These recommendations are made with the important caveat that, to date, such suggested therapeutic approaches are based on limited evidence.
Pharmacokinetic evidence for differences in drug elimination rates between cats, dogs, and humans. Shown is a comparison of published elimination half-life values in cats (filled circle), dogs (open square) and humans (plus symbol) for representative drugs that are primarily eliminated by conjugation (glucuronidation, sulfation, and glycination), oxidation (CYP enzymes) or are excreted primarily unchanged into urine and/or bile. All values are expressed as a ratio of the human value. Complete pharmacokinetic data and literature references are given in Table 1 for acetylsalicylic acid, propofol, acetaminophen, carprofen and piroxicam. Because of space limitations, the references giving data for other drugs are available directly from the author.
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