A cat cub is the first animal in the UK to be inflamed with the new coronavirus, Fitness said.
The cat’s test results were confirmed last week at a lab in Weybridge in South East England, Christine Middlemiss, the U.K.’s chief veterinary officer, said in a statement Monday.
Middlemiss said the cat had mild symptoms and has since recovered. Officials the owner of the cat, who also has COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, transmitted the virus to his pet.
“There is no evidence to recommend that puppies transmit the virus to humans. We will continue to monitor this scenario to a large extent and update our recommendation to puppy owners if the scenario changes,” Middlemiss said in a statement.
Although this is the first proven case of animal infection in the UK, animals in other parts of the world have also become inflamed with SARS-CoV-2.
In early April, a tiger at the Bronx Zoo was the first animal in the United States to test positive for COVID-19 after one of its caregivers allegedly passed the virus to the animal.
Two New York cats were the first pets in the United States to test positive after suffering minor respiratory symptoms. The animals came here from separate spaces and fitness officials that humans have inflamed them both.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, dogs, cats, and some other animals would likely become inflamed with the new virus, but fitness officials don’t know how many animals can be inflamed and more studies are needed on how it spreads among animals. .
Scientists are still investigating the origin of the new virus, however, some viruses originated in bats, then moved to an intermediate species before spreading to humans at an animal market in Wuhan, China.
Still, the CDC says, “the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low,” and the primary way the virus spreads is from person to person through respiratory droplets.
The CDC does not propose testing your puppy to detect COVID-19 at this time, but says other people with COVID-19 treat their puppies like other people and restrict contact with them if possible. Similarly, puppy owners restrict contact that allows their puppies to have with other people outdoors in their homes.
In May, a publication in the New England Journal of Medicine also found that cats can transmit coronavirus to other cats.
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