ABSTRACT
Confronted by a rapidly evolving health threat, such as an infectious disease outbreak, it is essential that decision-makers are able to comprehend the complex dynamics not just in space but also in the 4th dimension, time. In this paper this is addressed by a novel visualisation tool, referred to as the Dynamic Health Atlas web app, which is designed specifically for displaying the spatial evolution of data over time while simultaneously acknowledging its uncertainty. It is an interactive and open-source web app, coded predominantly in JavaScript, in which the geospatial and temporal data are displayed side-by-side. The first of two case studies of this visualisation tool relates to an outbreak of canine gastroenteric disease in the United Kingdom, where many veterinary practices experienced an unusually high case incidence. The second study concerns the predicted COVID-19 reproduction number along with incidence and prevalence forecasts in each local authority district in the United Kingdom. These studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the Dynamic Health Atlas web app at conveying geospatial and temporal dynamics along with their corresponding uncertainties.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , GastroenteritisABSTRACT
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. One Sentence SummarySARS-CoV-2 antibodies in pets from Italy.