Cat catches Covid

Virus is detected in family pet for the first time in Britain

COVID-19 has been detected in a pet cat for the first time in Britain.

Experts are warning people not to cough and sneeze near their animals, or to snuggle up face to face if the owner might be infected.

But owners have been told not to panic as there is still no evidence of cats passing the virus on to humans. Instead, they should stick to washing their hands before and after stroking their cat.

The Covid cat patient, a sixyear-old female, was mildly ill with no symptoms beyond a runny nose and watery eyes.

The pet is believed to have caught the virus from her owners, who live in England and also tested positive.

All have now recovered, but the first feline case of Covid-19 led to a statement by Downing Street yesterday.

The UK’s chief veterinary officer Christine Middlemiss said: ‘Tests conducted by the Animal and Plant Health Agency have confirmed that the virus responsible for Covid-19 has been detected in a pet cat in England.

‘This is a very rare event, with infected animals detected to date only showing mild clinical signs and recovering within a few days.’

The cat’s runny nose and eyes might have been caused by feline herpes, which she also had.

The case was detected when the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, which processes tests from cats with respiratory disease, was sent a swab taken by a private vet. They did an extra test to look for the virus in May and found the animal was positive.

Professor Margaret Hosie, of the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said: ‘Cats can be infected just like people, from a cough or sneeze, and we already know we can give them flu this way. People should practise good hygiene and not sneeze and cough near pets without catching it in a tissue.’

Genetic analysis of the virus in the cat revealed that it is the same one attacking humans, and the virus has not mutated to infect animals.

Professor James Wood, head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, added: ‘Cats may become infected by the high doses of virus transmitted by their infected owners in some settings.

‘The relative size of a cat versus a human means that there is far less exhaled breath from one cat in a house, compared to the exhaled breath volumes from a human patient.