Version 1
: Received: 16 July 2020 / Approved: 17 July 2020 / Online: 17 July 2020 (16:02:28 CEST)
How to cite:
Musso, N.; Costantino, A.; La Spina, S.; Finocchiaro, A.; Andronico, F.; Stracquadanio, S.; Liotta, L.; Visalli, R.; Emmanuele, G. New SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Pet Cat with Severe Lung Disease in Italy. Preprints2020, 2020070398. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202007.0398.v1.
Musso, N.; Costantino, A.; La Spina, S.; Finocchiaro, A.; Andronico, F.; Stracquadanio, S.; Liotta, L.; Visalli, R.; Emmanuele, G. New SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Pet Cat with Severe Lung Disease in Italy. Preprints 2020, 2020070398. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202007.0398.v1.
Cite as:
Musso, N.; Costantino, A.; La Spina, S.; Finocchiaro, A.; Andronico, F.; Stracquadanio, S.; Liotta, L.; Visalli, R.; Emmanuele, G. New SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Pet Cat with Severe Lung Disease in Italy. Preprints2020, 2020070398. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202007.0398.v1.
Musso, N.; Costantino, A.; La Spina, S.; Finocchiaro, A.; Andronico, F.; Stracquadanio, S.; Liotta, L.; Visalli, R.; Emmanuele, G. New SARS-CoV-2 Infection in a Pet Cat with Severe Lung Disease in Italy. Preprints 2020, 2020070398. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202007.0398.v1.
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
Subject
LIFE SCIENCES, Virology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.