New research recently presented the case of a Pennsylvania cat diagnosed as having COVID-19 in 2021, and following genome, testing has since identified the house pet's infection as the Delta variant AY.3, the same strain circulating in humans in that area during that time.
As indicated in a ScienceAlert report, "SARS-CoV-2 is not picky about its host." Since the virus initially started spreading among humans, it has jumped from one species to livestock, pets, and even wild animals.
Cats appear to be specifically vulnerable to contracting COVID-19, although they frequently do not exhibit symptoms, and it is unlikely that they can transfer the virus back to humans. Even among each other, there seems to be a low transmission.
Still, suppose SARS-CoV-2 is discreetly circulating among house pets. In that case, there is always a chance it could mutate into something even more dangerous, transmitting from household to household through a community of free-roaming cats and dogs.
That's the reason some scientists are trying to track COVID-19 variants among household pets. And at least for now, it appears like there is a little to be apprehensive about.
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A Pennsylvania cat caught COVID-19 in 2021, and later on, it was found to have contracted the Delta variant.
Delta Variant in Household Pets
The new study validates that the newer COVID-19 variants, at least up to Delta strain, are still spilling over household pets which is unfortunate.
One advantage, though, is that results of this new research suggest COVID-19 may not be mutating much in felines. Of all 4,200 human samples of coronavirus sequenced in Delaware, Pennsylvania, less than five percent contained ten single nucleotide strains found in the sample of the domestic cat.
Furthermore, seven of the ten mutations were silent, which did not cause substantial changes. According to Elizabeth Lennon, a veterinarian from the University of Pennsylvania, when they looked at a random sampling of human sequences from the geographic area, there wasn't anything drastically different about the cat sample. Therefore, she explained, their takeaway was that the cat was not infected by a virus that was in some way highly different.
Mutations in Felines
The study published in Viruses is the first to officially determine a delta strain among domestic cats in the United States. Even though at the time of the study, the researchers became aware of another cat from Virginia that had contracted the AY.3 strain, as detailed in a Newsweek report, about a month ahead.
As indicated in the case, both cat-derived AY.3 genomes showed a few single nucleotide strains compared to human-derived samples, which is a good sign, although the sample size is small.
The study's authors said some of these mutations might be enriched in samples from cats, although a larger dataset is needed to draw such a conclusion.
Interestingly, a nasal swab did not identify COVID-19 infection in this household cat from Pennsylvania, but a fecal test did. This then might signify different physical reservoirs for the virus among different animal species, or it could be that the cat was tested following the progression of the infection from nose to butt.
Some humans who contract the virus, for example, continue to exhibit positive fecal samples on average, more than 11 days after results of their respiratory tract test drop below detectable levels.
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