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Cat in quarantine in Portugal
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According to a study, the corona virus can probably be transmitted from cats to humans.
Scientists describe a case in Thailand in which a veterinarian became infected with the virus in the journal "Emerging Infectious Diseases".
In the southern Thai city of Songkhla, she had treated a cat that had tested positive for the corona virus and had been sneezed on by it.
The case occurred in August 2021 and is the first documented transmission of Sars-CoV-2 from cats to humans.
The animal probably got the virus from its two owners, a father and his son, writes the group led by Sarunyou Chusri from the Prince of Songkla University in Songkhla.
A veterinarian then swabbed the animal at a veterinary facility.
Although the vet wore gloves and a mask, she may have contracted the virus when the animal sneezed in her face.
On August 13, the 32-year-old showed symptoms of Covid 19 such as fever and cough.
Genome sequencing later revealed that the viruses found in the cat, the veterinarian and the owners were very closely related.
The virus variant found was not very common in the region at the time - the two owners had been brought from Bangkok to Songkhla by ambulance due to a lack of free hospital beds.
At that time there was no contact between the veterinarian and the owners of the cat, and nobody in the woman's environment had Covid-19 - this supports the theory that she actually contracted the cat.
No notices in Germany
Scientists see no reason to worry about the case.
The virus is transmitted significantly more frequently from humans to cats than in the opposite direction.
However, the event underscores the need to isolate household animals in the event of an infection, said infectious disease specialist Scott Weese from the Canadian University of Guelph in Ontario in a report by the New York Times.
Increased caution also applies to veterinarians and animal shelter workers.
"I think it's important for us to recognize that the virus can still switch between species," it said.
Previous studies had shown that pet owners can infect their cats.
Transmissions from cats to each other were also known.
But cases like the one in Thailand are probably the exception.
At the beginning of the year, when the omicron variant was spreading more and more in Germany, the Federal Research Institute for Animal Health had no evidence of relevant transmission of the coronavirus from pets to humans.
Only a few cases of such animal transmissions to humans are known worldwide, for example in mink on Danish fur farms, in hamsters and in deer.
joe/dpa
