Scientists identify a cat in the UK infected with SARS-CoV-2:
A team of scientists at the University of Glasgow has identified a cat in the UK that was infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
Researchers from the MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research (CVR) in partnership with the Veterinary Diagnostic Service (VDS) of the University's School of Veterinary Medicine made the discovery as part of their joint research program in which they have screened hundreds of samples for COVID-19 infections in the feline population in the UK.
[...] Professor William Weir of the University of Glasgow's School of Veterinary Medicine said: "The factors that govern why one species is susceptible to the COVID-19 virus while others are more resistant are currently unknown, but will likely reveal more about how this virus spreads and causes disease. At present, there is no evidence that cats, dogs or other domestic animals play any role in the epidemiology of human infections with SARS-CoV-2. Furthermore, the significance of SARS-CoV-2 as a feline or canine pathogen is unknown as cats and dogs with reported infections usually recover and there has been no evidence of transmission occurring between cats or dogs in the field."
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:15PM (6 children)
Also found in NY way back in April:
Confirmation of COVID-19 in Two Pet Cats in New York [cdc.gov]
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:09PM (5 children)
Belgium had first case before this
https://www.livescience.com/cat-infected-covid-19-from-owner.html [livescience.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:41PM (4 children)
The Netherlands has confirmed cases of mink-to-human transmission: https://nypost.com/2020/05/25/dutch-government-finds-second-mink-to-human-coronavirus-transmission/ [nypost.com]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:46PM
Netherlands wins!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:56PM (1 child)
Don't wear mink.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:59PM
Well since they are killing all the farmed mink now i guess people won't
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:43PM
minkia!
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:20PM (3 children)
It's an interesting tidbit of knowledge, but as far as I've read, there's not much to worry about here. There's little chance of infection from your cat to other people and the pets seem to recover without much issue.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:58PM (2 children)
This is the same for humans. 99.9% of people recover without issue and like 90% dont spread it to anyone either.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.26.20162420v1 [medrxiv.org]
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Thursday July 30 2020, @05:41AM (1 child)
If 90% of those infected don't spread it to others, it's kinds hard for this to grow and spread like an epidemic. (That 10% would have to be super spreaders to even up the infection figures.)
I didn't spot anything about this in the pre-print you linked.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @03:02PM
> Among the 77 patients, 66 did not transmit to others, and 7 transmitted to 8 others and were designated as associated with superspreading.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322930/ [nih.gov]
> The distribution of individual
R values was highly over-dispersed, with 80% of
infections being caused by 8·9% (95% CI 3·5–10·8) of
cases (negative binomial dispersion parameter 0·58;
95% CI 0·35–1·18).
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30287-5/fulltext [thelancet.com]
> A comparison between reported and model-estimated case numbers indicated high levels of transmission heterogeneity in SARS-CoV-2 spread, with between 1-10% of infected individuals resulting in 80% of secondary infections.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.21.20104521v1 [medrxiv.org]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:18PM (2 children)
See if they had left the cat in the box, it would still be in an infected/non-infected state...but, no...they had to look!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:49PM
Schrodinger's Covid - also sometimes known as the common cold.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday July 30 2020, @05:35AM
Brits are known to be sadistic toward cats; guinea pigs as well. https://nypost.com/2018/04/05/poisoned-ex-russian-spys-pets-have-starved-to-death/ [nypost.com]
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:22PM (2 children)
Oh no, it mutated the feline transmission trait!
Soon:
UK Euthanizes All Cats to Stop Spread of SARS-CoV-2
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 3, Informative) by krishnoid on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:04PM (1 child)
Shortly after:
Ulthar's legal prohibition [hplovecraft.com] against killing of cats adapted to UK-wide standard.
(Score: 2) by The Vocal Minority on Thursday July 30 2020, @07:57AM
Ah, yes one of his Dunsany fanboy fic stories. I had forgotten about that one!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @06:59PM (1 child)
So should we start to advise that cats wear masks now? Should they also engage in social distancing?
Good luck with that. Better luck getting dogs to obey than cats.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @05:11AM
Just don't eat cats.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:29PM (2 children)
I wanna lick it!
site has following at top
"It appears that you are currently using Ad Blocking software. What are the consequences?"
I did not click it but I'm guessing "Your cat will get covid-19" is one of the horrifying things that will happen if I don't disable my adblocker.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:07PM
If it gives you somewhere to respond you can write
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @08:36PM
At least they're being honest instead of throwing up that "you are offline" BS.
In both cases it just means "your ad-blocker is out of date". FWIW, I wouldn't bother blocking scripts/ads if they weren't so likely to compromise my machine. If they could police themselves, I wouldn't have to police them. We'd all be happier.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday July 29 2020, @09:00PM (2 children)
Which party is the cat registered with?
How did the cat vote in the last election?
Did the cat vote for Brexit?
Is the cat related to Boris?
BTW, what is with Boris' hair? Is he allergic to combs or brushes? How can he possibly FORCE his hair to be so wild? Is he some kind of mutant, maybe?
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:28PM
Now you know why they wore white wigs. They hate their own hair or something.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:09PM
I dunno always thought Boris looked like a sheep. Then i met him and asked him who was prime minister from 1997-2007 and he said "bllllllllllllllllaaaaiiiirrrrrrrrrrrrrr", so obviously not.
You forgot to ask
a)if the cat was a mask wearer as this will decide whether he shall be sent to animal hell.
b) if the cat was or had ever been a communist
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:16PM
If so, they better keep this cat away from Chinese restaurants.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday July 29 2020, @10:24PM (1 child)
cats are very resilient so if you see one that looks ill, it's probably very ill. Things like the parvovirus are way more resilient than covid and deadly, so call some state service if it's on the street. If having to take your cat to the vet, then sanify the vehicle. I hear ozone is good.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @12:02AM
I wonder if it affects cats of a certain age more than others.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2020, @12:09AM
Dogs are better than cats.
No wait. Dogs are better than people, certainly better your limey neighbors.
If your border collies haven't convinced you of that ...
(Score: 2) by Username on Thursday July 30 2020, @12:20AM
Did they run out of people to test? Just seems odd people get angry if someone doesn't wear a mask, but seem just fine wasting tests on their pets. Through this whole thing I've argued with a bunch of people about masks and how and why you catch a virus, not a single one offered to give me a test. In fact, I don't know of a single place that will give one to me. Just goes to show it's about compliance, and revoking agency. They don't really care if you have it.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Thursday July 30 2020, @09:10AM
Still using the wrong terminology for the virus!
And in a news article!
Call the disease by its proper name:
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti