Two recently published studies include important findings related to SARS-CoV-2 transmission and the COVID-19 pandemic: Domestic cats can be asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2, but pigs are unlikely to be significant carriers of the virus.

«Other research has shown that COVID-19-infected human patients are transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to cats; this includes domestic cats and even large cats, such as lions and tigers,» said Jurgen A. Richt, the Regents distinguished professor at Kansas State University in the College of Veterinary Medicine. «Our findings are important because of the close association between humans and companion animals.»

There are about 95 million house cats in the U.S. and about 60 million to 100 million feral cats, Richt said.

Richt is the senior author on the two recent collaborative publications in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections: «SARS-CoV-2 infection, disease and transmission in domestic cats» and «Susceptibility of swine cells and domestic pigs to SARS-CoV-2.»

Through their in-depth study at the K-State Biosecurity Research Institute, or BRI, at Pat Roberts Hall, the researchers studied susceptibility to infection, disease and transmission in domestic cats. They found that domestic cats may not have obvious clinical signs of SARS-CoV-2, but they still shed the virus through their nasal, oral and rectal cavities and can spread it efficiently to other cats within two days. Further research is needed to study whether domestic cats can spread the virus to other animals and humans.

«This efficient transmission between domestic cats indicates a significant animal and public health need to investigate a potential human-cat-human transmission chain,» said Richt, who is also the director of the university’s Center of Excellence for Emerging and Zoonotic Animal Diseases, known as CEEZAD, and the Center on Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, known as CEZID.

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