Report of One-Year Prospective Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Dogs and Cats in France with Various Exposure Risks: Confirmation of a Low Prevalence of Shedding, Detection and Complete Sequencing of an Alpha Variant in a Cat.
Viruses
; 13(9)2021 09 03.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1390790
ABSTRACT
Despite the probable zoonotic origin of SARS-CoV-2, only limited research efforts have been made to understand the role of companion animals in SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology. According to recent serological prevalence studies, human-to-companion animal transmission is quite frequent, which led us to consider that the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission from animal to human, albeit negligible in the present context, may have been underestimated. In this study, we provide the results of a prospective survey that was conducted to evaluate the SARS-CoV-2 isolation rate by qRT-PCR in dogs and cats with different exposure risks and clinical statuses. From April 2020 to April 2021, we analyzed 367 samples and investigated the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA using qRT-PCR. Only four animals tested positive, all of them being cats. Three cats were asymptomatic and one presented a coryza-like syndrome. We describe in detail the infection in two cats and the associated clinical characteristics. Importantly, we obtained SARS-CoV-2 genomes from one infected animal and characterized them as Alpha variants. This represents the first identification of the SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant in an infected animal in France.
Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Cat Diseases
/
Dog Diseases
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Variants
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
/
Male
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
V13091759
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