Laboratorio di Ricerca di Medicina Emotrasfusionale Veterinaria (REvLab), Dipartimento di Medicina Veterinaria (DIMEVET), Università degli Studi di Milano, 26900 Lodi, Italy.
Centro di Referenza Nazionale per le Leishmaniosi (C.Re.Na.L), Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale (IZS) della Sicilia A. Mirri, 90129 Palermo, Italy.
Viruses. 2021 Apr 3;13(4):618. doi: 10.3390/v13040618.
Cats are susceptible to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Whilst a number of studies have been performed worldwide on owned cats, limited data are available on stray, colony or shelter cats. We investigated SARS-CoV-2 infection in a stray cat population before and during human outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2 in cities in the Lombardy region in northern Italy, a high endemic region for SARS-CoV-2, using serological and molecular methods. A cohort of different samples were collected from 241 cats, including frozen archived serum samples from 136 cats collected before the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and serum, pharyngeal and rectal swab samples from 105 cats collected during the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. All pre-pandemic samples tested seronegative for antibodies against the nucleocapsid of SARS-CoV-2 using indirect enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test, while one serum sample collected during the pandemic was seropositive. No serological cross-reactivity was detected between SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and antibodies against feline enteric (FECV) and infectious peritonitis coronavirus (FIPC), Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), Feline Calicivirus (FCV), Feline Herpesvirus-1 (FHV-1), Feline Parvovirus (FPV), , , spp., or . No pharyngeal or rectal swab tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA on real time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR). Our data show that SARS-CoV-2 did infect stray cats in Lombardy during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with lower prevalence than found in owned cats. This should alleviate public concerns about stray cats acting as SARS-CoV-2 carriers.
猫易感染严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）。虽然全世界有许多关于家猫的研究，但有关流浪猫、群体猫或收容所猫的数据有限。我们使用血清学和分子方法，调查了意大利北部伦巴第地区城市在人类爆发 SARS-CoV-2 之前和期间流浪猫群中的 SARS-CoV-2 感染情况。该地区是 SARS-CoV-2 的高发区。从 241 只猫中收集了不同的样本，包括 136 只猫在 2019 年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行之前采集的冷冻存档血清样本，以及 105 只猫在 SARS-CoV-2 爆发期间采集的血清、咽拭子和直肠拭子样本。所有流行前样本均使用间接酶联免疫吸附试验（ELISA）检测针对 SARS-CoV-2 核衣壳的抗体均为血清阴性，而在大流行期间采集的一份血清样本为血清阳性。SARS-CoV-2 抗体与针对猫肠道（FECV）和传染性腹膜炎冠状病毒（FIPC）、猫免疫缺陷病毒（FIV）、猫杯状病毒（FCV）、猫疱疹病毒-1（FHV-1）、猫细小病毒（FPV）、、、 或 。实时逆转录-聚合酶链反应（rRT-PCR）未检测到咽拭子或直肠拭子中 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 呈阳性。我们的数据表明，SARS-CoV-2 在 COVID-19 大流行期间确实感染了伦巴第的流浪猫，但感染率低于家猫。这应该减轻公众对流浪猫作为 SARS-CoV-2 携带者的担忧。
