Preprint
Case Report
New SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Pet Cat with Severe Lung Disease in Italy
This version is not peer-reviewed.
Submitted:
16 July 2020
Posted:
17 July 2020
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Abstract
The pandemic respiratory disease COVID-19, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in Wuhan in December 2019 and then spread throughout the world; Italy was the most affected European country. Despite the close pet-human contact, little is known about the predisposition of pets to SARS-CoV-2. Among these, felines are the most susceptible. In this study, a domestic cat with clear symptoms of pneumonia, confirmed by Rx imaging, was found to be infected by SARS-CoV-2 using quantitative RT–qPCR from a nasal swab. This is the first Italian study reporting on the request of the scientific community to focus attention on the possible role of pets as a SARS-CoV-2 reservoir. An important question remains unanswered: did the cat die from SARS-CoV-2 infection?
Keywords:
SARS-CoV-2
; pet cat
; RNA-extraction
; pneumonia
supplementary.pdf (169.81KB )
Preprints on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
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