Pets, such as dogs and cats can be infected, people with the Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2. This assumption of scientists has now confirmed a study by Italian researchers at a relatively large number of animals. The scientists had studied 540 dogs and 277 cats in Northern Italy, especially in Lombardy,. The animals lived in households with Corona-patients or in particularly hard by Corona-affected areas. At 3.4 percent of the dogs, and 3.9 percent of cats, the researchers antibodies were able to prove against the Virus. This indicates a past infection.
Tests on The virus in swabs from the mouth, nose, and throat were the same for all animals negative for the Virus shedding ceases after only two weeks. Was tested between March and may 2020. The results of the study have been previously published and is not yet of scientific peer-reviewed.
the results of The study are, in the words of the President of the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Greifswald, Thomas Mettenleiter, not surprisingly. “They confirm what we already know,” he said. However, it is good to have a study with such a number of Pets. “It is not so easy to get samples.”
The significantly greater proportion of positive tested animals comes from Covid-19-households. “We assume that, in General case, the Transmission of the Virus from the human to the animal,” said Mettenleiter. Only in a mink farm in the Netherlands, it was, perhaps, Vice versa. But even there, the first entry in the Farm was done by people.
The study confirm the previous evaluation of the FLI, that dogs or cats play no role in the spread of the Sars-CoV-2 Virus. The decisive factor is the Transmission from human to human. The contact of healthy people to house animals must not be restricted from the current point of view of the FLI. Infected people should avoid contact with domestic animals. Even if Pets infect, it means, according to the FLI does not automatically that can multiply the Virus in animals and also is excreted with nasal discharge, cough, sputum, or feces.
