A stray cat on the streets of an empty Istanbul.
Getty/Anadolu Agency
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Coronaviruses have lived and thrived in animals for thousands of years, but only a handful have been known to make the jump from animal to humans and cause illness. The coronavirus at the center of the current pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, did just that and has proven to be incredibly successful at spreading from human to human. As of early April — just four months after it was first detected — the virus had infected over 1 million people and spread to over 180 countries.
It turns out SARS-CoV-2 can hijack animal cells, too. Scientists believe the disease originated in Chinese horseshoe bats before it jumped into an intermediary animal and, from there, found its way into humans. The virus is able to inject itself into cells by binding to a cell surface protein known as ACE2, which is present in many species of animal.
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Some media reports have shown that the coronavirus can infect our companion animals — and more exotic species like tigers and lions — but cases are rare. It appears that transmission of the disease from human to animal is low with a tiny number of cases reported since the outbreak’s early days. Importantly, there is no evidence pets can transmit to their owners. The World Health Organization states there is “no evidence that a dog, cat or any pet can transmit COVID-19.”
Still, pet owners are understandably worried about the health of their companions and how COVID-19 might affect them. We’ve gathered everything you need to know about coronavirus and your pets here, along with emerging research in how animals may spread or be affected by the coronavirus. If you have additional questions, you can reach out via email or give me a nudge on Twitter.
- Where did the coronavirus come from?
- Can the coronavirus infect cats and dogs?
- Can other animals be infected?
- Can I get COVID-19 from my pet?
- How can I protect my pets?
- Is there a vaccine for COVID-19 in dogs and cats?
Where did the coronavirus come from?
This coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is what’s known as a zoonotic disease: It jumped from an animal species into humans.
Studying the genetic makeup of the coronavirus and comparing it to a library of previously known coronaviruses, experts suggest the virus likely arose in Chinese horseshoe bats, before jumping to an intermediary species in close contact with humans. Some scientists believe the intermediary could be the pangolin, a scaly, ant-eating mammal that has been shown to harbor coronaviruses in the past and is one of the most illegally trafficked animals in the world.
Pangolins were sold at a Chinese live animal market often cited as the “epicenter” of the outbreak, but prestigious medical journal The Lancet published an extensive report on patients infected with the disease, noting that the very first patient identified had not been exposed to the animal market.
Whatever the origin story of SARS-CoV-2, we know coronaviruses are able to establish residency in all manner of species — whether they cause disease or not is a question still requires an answer and it’s an important one. Epidemiologists will want to know which species can harbor the virus so they can better understand where it may persist in the environment and how likely it is to jump back to humans in the future.
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Can the coronavirus infect cats and dogs?
Coronaviruses are not particularly hard to please when it comes to potential hosts — they’ve been detected in many mammal and bird species, including dogs and cats, as well as livestock like cows, chickens and pigs.
There have been several reports providing evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in household pets. A 17-year-old dog in Hong Kong repeatedly tested “weakly positive” for coronavirus in March and later died. A cat in Belgium tested positive for the disease on March 24.
“These pets were living with infected human owners, and the timing of the positive result demonstrates human-to-animal transfer,” said Jacqui Norris, a veterinary scientist at the University of Sydney in Australia. “Virus culture on these pets was negative, meaning that an active virus was not present.”
A study by researchers at the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute in China, published in the journal Science on April 8, examined the susceptibility of a number of species to COVID-19, including cats and dogs, using a small number of animals.
The results demonstrated that cats can be infected with the coronavirus and may be able to spread it to other cats via respiratory droplets. The team placed infected animals in cages next to three animals without the disease and found, in one case, the virus had spread from cat to cat. The felines didn’t show any outward signs of illness, however.
Dogs appear to be more resistant. Five 3-month-old beagles were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 via the nasal passage and housed with two dogs not given the virus. After a week, the virus was not detected in any dogs, but two had generated an immune response. The two dogs that did not receive the virus did not acquire it from their kennel mates.
One of the key takeaways, as highlighted by Nature, is that these experiments were performed in a laboratory setting and that high doses of the coronavirus were used to infect the animals, which likely does not reflect real-life conditions. Nevertheless, cats do appear prone to infection, and the authors note further monitoring should be considered.
IDEXX Reference Laboratories, a consortium of testing labs across the globe, announced in March that it had created a testing kit for felines and canines. After running tests on over 4,000 specimens from the US and South Korea, it found no positives. The US Department of Agriculture has stated it will not test companion animals unless testing is agreed upon by animal and public health officials due to “a link to a known human case of COVID-19.”
Can other animals be infected by SARS-CoV-2?
Many species are susceptible to infection because they conta