Pet owners who catch COVID-19 could be in danger of infecting their animals, who could in turn reintroduce the virus back to humans.
A new study from researchers in the Netherlands discovered that owners who have COVID commonly transmit the disease to their dogs and cats. “If you have COVID-19, you should avoid contact with your cat or dog, just as you would do with other people,” said Utrecht University’s Dr. Els Broens, leader of the study, per the Guardian.
He continued, “The main concern, however, is not the animals’ health—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.”
Thankfully, there hasn’t been any documentation of pets giving humans COVID.
Broens and his fellow researchers collected their findings from 196 households, giving PCR tests to 156 dogs and 154 cats. They found that six cats and seven dogs tested positive for the virus and 31 cats and 23 dogs tested positive for antibodies. The scientists also studied whether COVID was being passed between pets, which didn’t seem to be the case. Data did reveal that coronavirus is widespread in pets who had sick owners.
Elsewhere, another study led by Dr. Dorothee Bienzle, a professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Guelph in Canada, showed cats are susceptible to catching COVID if they sleep in their owner’s bed. “If you have COVID-19, I’d advise that you keep your distance from your pet—and keep it out of your bedroom,” Bienzle said.
She reached the same conclusion as Broens, saying, “While the evidence that pets can pass the virus on to other pets is limited, it can’t be excluded. Similarly, although pets have not been shown to pass the virus back to people, the possibility can’t be completely ruled out.”
