Vet World Vol.15 November-2022 Article-11
Research Article
Veterinary World, 15(11): 2593-2596
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2022.2593-2596
First reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pets in São Paulo, Brazil
2. Department of Medicine, University of Santo Amaro (UNISA), São Paulo, Brazil.
3. Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil.
4. TECSA Animal Laboratories, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
5. Department of Comparative Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA.
6. Department of Comparative Pathobiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
7. Department of Veterinary Medicine, Federal University of Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Background and Aim: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in humans in 2019. Although SARS-CoV-2 infection is primarily asymptomatic and transitory in companion animals, the role of these animals in the life cycle of the virus remains unclear. This study aimed to survey the first SARS-CoV-2 infection cases in pets, including a dog and three cats in São Paulo, Brazil.
Materials and Methods: We invited COVID-19-positive pet owners to participate in the survey and obtained nasal, oropharyngeal, and rectal swab samples from their pets. These samples were placed in vials and subjected to a real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. In addition, the owners answered an epidemiological questionnaire, and the pets underwent clinical examination and monitoring.
Results: Out of 49 sampled pets, 3/19 (15.8%) cats and 1/30 (3.3%) dogs tested positive, with wide variations in viral loads. Despite the limitations of size and non-randomized sampling, our results showed that cats are more susceptible than dogs to SARS-CoV-2 infection, presenting a cat: dog ratio of 4.8: 1. Only one cat presented mild and transitory respiratory symptoms.
Conclusion: Although SARS-CoV-2 infection was detected in pets in the largest South American city and the COVID-19 epicenter at the time, these first detected pet cases displayed either none or mild clinical signs. Keywords: novel coronavirus, One Health, veterinary medicine, zoonoses.
Keywords: novel coronavirus, One Health, veterinary medicine, zoonoses.
How to cite this article: Agopian RG, da Luz SCG, Zebral AGB, de Sousa GF, de Oliveira IAV, Lima LS, Sechi MA, de Oliveira MC, Rudiniski VF, Brandespim DF, de Carvalho OV, Pettan-Brewer C, dos Santos AP, Kmetiuk LB, and Biondo AW (2022) First reported cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pets in São Paulo, Brazil, Veterinary World, 15(11): 2593–2596.
Received: 24-05-2022 Accepted: 03-10-2022 Published online: 16-11-2022
Corresponding author: Alexander Welker Biondo E-mail: abiondo@ufpr.br
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.2593-2596
Copyright: Agopian, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.