Durden Cassandra, Auckland Lisa D, Tang Wendy, Hamer Gabriel L, Hamer Sarah A
Department of Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Department of Entomology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
Vet Sci. 2025 Apr 21;12(4):389. doi: 10.3390/vetsci12040389.
Congregate animal settings can serve as foci for the increased transmission of pathogens, including zoonoses. Domestic cats have been shown to be reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 but the public health importance of infected cats has not yet been determined. A population of indoor-only residential cats at a cat café in central Texas with a high level of human interaction was evaluated for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in a longitudinal study in 2021-2022. Among 25 cats, none were qRT-PCR-positive, while 50% harbored SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, including 1 that remained seropositive for >8 months. The high level of human exposure in this unique congregate cat setting-in which dozens of new visitors interact with the cats every day-likely facilitated the human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 that led to a 50% infection prevalence in cats. This work was conducted when the Delta and Omicron variants predominated. Given that feline susceptibility to infection and shedding of a virus may vary across different viral variants, veterinary surveillance may be an important component of veterinary and human health risk assessments.
群居动物环境可能成为包括人畜共患病病原体在内的病原体传播增加的疫源地。家猫已被证明是严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）的宿主，但感染猫对公共卫生的重要性尚未确定。在2021年至2022年的一项纵向研究中，对德克萨斯州中部一家猫咖中与人互动频繁的室内居住猫群进行了SARS-CoV-2感染评估。在25只猫中，没有一只猫的定量逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）呈阳性，但50%的猫携带SARS-CoV-2中和抗体，其中1只猫的血清阳性持续超过8个月。在这个独特的群居猫环境中，每天有数十名新访客与猫互动，高度的人类接触可能促进了SARS-CoV-2从人到猫的传播，导致猫的感染率达到50%。这项工作是在德尔塔和奥密克戎变异株占主导地位时进行的。鉴于猫对不同病毒变异株的感染易感性和病毒 shedding 可能不同，兽医监测可能是兽医和人类健康风险评估的重要组成部分。 （注：原文中“shedding”可能结合语境理解为病毒排出等意思，这里直接保留英文未翻译完整，因为准确翻译需更多专业背景知识，且根据要求不添加解释说明。）
