Pet owners have been told to keep their cats indoors to help prevent the spread of coronavirus amid mounting evidence that domestic animals can be infected.
The British Veterinary Association (BVA) issued the warning but said “owners should not worry” about animal-to-human transmission.
Research from the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in China has suggested that cats may be able to catch Covid-19 and spread it among themselves. Dogs are not as susceptible to infection, the study added.
Even then, the risk of a pet contracting the virus is low. Globally, only two dogs and two cats have tested positive for the virus, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
“Over one million human cases at this point worldwide and we’ve only seen four domestic animals test positive so far worldwide, so the risk is very minimal [for Covid-19] to get to pets,” said William Sander, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois’ College of Veterinary Medicine.
However, the BVA said owners should still take “sensible precautions” when handling their pets.
“Practise good hand hygiene, try and keep cats indoors,” BVA president Daniella Dos Santos told the BBC.
“Avoid unnecessary contact with your pets, such a hugging or allowing them to lick your face, and do not touch other people’s dogs when on walks.”
The first confirmed case of human-to-animal transmission was reported in Hong Kong in late February after an infected woman passed the virus to her dog, which showed no symptoms of the disease, according to the region’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.
Earlier this week, a tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York tested positive for coronavirus, with six others thought to be infected by an asymptomatic zoo keeper.
This followed confirmation that a cat in Belgium had contracted Covid-19 after its owner fell ill with the disease.
The Chinese research team from Harbin said: “The cats we used in this study were … highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, which replicated efficiently and transmitted to naive cats.
“Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in cats should be considered as an adjunct to elimination of of COVID-19 in humans.”
The study has not yet been peer-reviewed although experts said the findings were credible.
The BVA points out that, like any surface, an animal’s fur could carry the virus for a time “if a pet were to have come into contact with someone who was sick”.
Despite increasing evidence of human-to-animal transmissibility, there is nothing to suggest animals can pass the disease back to people.
Karen Terio, chief of the Zoological Pathology Program at the University of Illinois’ College of Veterinary Medicine, which assisted in diagnosing the Bronx Zoo tiger, said: “To date we have no evidence of the virus being transmitted from a pet to their owners. It’s much, much more likely that an owner could potentially transmit it to their pet.”
The focus in the control of coronavirus “undoubtedly needs to remain firmly on reducing the risk of human-to-human transmission,” said Dirk Pfeiffer, an epidemiologist at the City University of Hong Kong.
