Research Shows Pet Dogs and Cats May Easily Catch COVID-19 From Their Owners

By European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases June 30, 2021

COVID-19 is common in cats and dogs whose owners have the virus, according to new research presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) held online.

Cases of owners spreading the disease to their dogs or cats have been documented before, but are considered a negligible risk to public health. However, as vaccination and other measures reduce human-to-human transmission of the virus, it becomes imperative that we understand more about the potential risk of animal infections.

To find out more, Dr. Els Broens and colleagues from Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, dogs and cats from people who had tested positive for COVID-19. A mobile veterinary clinic visited the homes of owners who had tested positive in the past two to 200 days and collected oropharyngeal and rectal swabs and blood samples from their cats and dogs.

The swabs were used in PCR tests, which provide evidence of a current infection, and the blood samples were tested for antibodies, which provide evidence of a previous infection.

A total of 156 dogs and 154 cats from 196 households were tested. Six cats and seven dogs (4.2%) had positive PCR tests and 31 cats and 23 dogs (17.4%) tested positive for antibodies.

Eleven of the 13 owners whose pets had positive PCR tests agreed to undergo a second round of testing one to three weeks after they were first tested. All 11 animals tested positive for antibodies, confirming they had had COVID-19. Three cats still had positive PCR tests and were tested for a third time. Eventually, all PCR-positive animals cleared of the infection and became PCR-negative.

Eight cats and dogs living in the same home as the PCR-positive pets were also retested in this second phase to check for virus transmission between pets. None tested positive, suggesting the virus was not transmitted between pets that were in close contact with each other.

With pets in 40/196 households (20.4%) having antibodies to the virus, the study shows that COVID-19 is common in pets of people who have had the disease.

The researchers say that with other studies showing that COVID-19 rates are higher in pets that have been in contact with people with the virus, than in pets without such contact, the most likely route of human-to-pet transmission is rather of the reverse.

dr. Broens adds: “If you have COVID-19, you should avoid contact with your cat or dog, just like you would with other people.

“However, the biggest concern is not the health of the animals – they had no or mild symptoms of COVID-19 – but the potential risk that pets could act as a reservoir of the virus and reintroduce it into the human population.

“Fortunately, no transmission from pets to humans has been reported to date. So despite the fairly high prevalence among pets from COVID-19-positive households in this study, it seems unlikely that pets are playing a role in the pandemic.”

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This article is based on oral presentation 606 at the annual meeting of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). The material has been peer-reviewed by the congress selection committee. The study has not yet been submitted for publication.