Recently, the BC Centre for Disease Control (BC Centre) launched a test in the Lower Mainland to study the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus from humans to cats. If you have been tested positive for COVID-19 within the past five days and happen to have a cat, you can apply to participate in the study.
According to Vancouver (NEWS1130), Erin Fraser, a public health veterinarian, said that the study was conducted by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Erin Fraser, a public health veterinarian, said the current guidelines for veterinarians and cat owners are based on knowledge of the virus in humans, and the new study will help provide a closer look at how the virus affects cats and their owners, and could help improve the information in the guidelines.
Fraser added that there is still much that is not known about virus transmission between humans and cats; we don’t know the probability of cats being infected, and we don’t know the probability of them being infected with the virus without clinical signs? How long is their infectious period after infection? What do their clinical signs look like? How long do they take to recover?
Fraser emphasizes that this study focuses on cats rather than dogs because studies have shown that cats can transmit the virus to other cats, but while dogs can also be infected, there is no evidence that they can transmit the COVID virus to other animals.
The subject will be studied with 40 cats living with their owners who are newly infected with the virus, and because cats are more susceptible, Fraser said that up to three cats in a household can participate in the study.
To reduce the stress caused to cats, if your cat is selected for testing, it can be placed in a sterilized cage outside the front door, where a CDC mobile testing station will perform oral and rectal tests, as well as take blood samples.
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