Natural SARS-CoV-2 infections, including virus isolation, among serially tested cats and dogs in households with confirmed human COVID-19 cases in Texas, USA

  1. Sarah A. Hamer
  2. Alex Pauvolid-Corrêa
  3. Italo B. Zecca
  4. Edward Davila
  5. Lisa D. Auckland
  6. Christopher M. Roundy
  7. Wendy Tang
  8. Mia Torchetti
  9. Mary Lea Killian
  10. Melinda Jenkins-Moore
  11. Katie Mozingo
  12. Yao Akpalu
  13. Ria R. Ghai
  14. Jessica R. Spengler
  15. Casey Barton Behravesh
  16. Rebecca S. B. Fischer
  17. Gabriel L. Hamer

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Abstract

The natural infections and epidemiological roles of household pets in SARS-CoV-2 transmission are not understood. We conducted a longitudinal study of dogs and cats living with at least one SARS-CoV-2 infected human in Texas and found 47.1% of 17 cats and 15.3% of 59 dogs from 25.6% of 39 households were positive for SARS-CoV-2 via RT-PCR and genome sequencing or neutralizing antibodies. Virus was isolated from one cat. The majority (82.4%) of infected pets were asymptomatic. Re-sampling of one infected cat showed persistence of viral RNA at least 32 d-post human diagnosis (25 d-post initial test). Across 15 antibody-positive animals, titers increased (33.3%), decreased (33.3%) or were stable (33.3%) over time. A One Health approach is informative for prevention and control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

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  1. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.12.08.416339: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementConsent: Pet owners were administered a short questionnaire by phone including pet signalment (breed, age, sex), vaccination history, pet symptoms, date of positive human test result (which was cross-checked with BCHD), and were read the details of the informed consent form, after which a visit was arranged to sample the animal(s) at their household.
    IACUC: All samples were obtained from privately-owned animals in adherence with animal use protocols approved by the Texas A&M University’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and Clinical Research Review Committee on May 14, 2020 (2018-0460 CA).
    Randomizationnot detected.
    BlindingCell cultures with no CPE were frozen, thawed and subjected to two blind passages, with inoculation of fresh cultures with the lysates as described above.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Cell Line Authenticationnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Experimental Models: Cell Lines
    SentencesResources
    Vero (ATCC CCL-81) cells were inoculated with 1.5mL of diluted sample and adsorbed for 1 hour at 37°C.
    Vero
    suggested: None
    At 1 hr post infection, 150 μL of Vero 76 cell suspension were added to the virus-serum mixtures.
    Vero 76
    suggested: IZSLER Cat# BS CL 101, RRID:CVCL_0603)
    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    Repeat specimen collections followed a minimum of one week from the date of initial sample collection and occurred up to three times per household within two months of the first specimen collection event.
    Repeat
    suggested: (ProRepeat, RRID:SCR_006113)
    The alignment was used to output a phylogenetic tree using RAxML with GTRCAT model (25).
    RAxML
    suggested: (RAxML, RRID:SCR_006086)

    Results from OddPub: Thank you for sharing your data.

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Study limitations include that it is unknown how many SARS-CoV-2-positive humans lived in each household, or their duration or nature of their symptoms while interacting with pets. Further, specimens or sequences from the human SARS-CoV-2 infections in the same households were not available for alignment with the sequences we generated from the pets, which would be useful for understanding transmission. Additionally, because animals associated with initial negative results in households with other negative animals were never re-sampled, we may have missed the detection of infection if animals seroconverted at a later date. The present study advances our understanding of the transmission risk between people and their pets during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it underscores the need for a One Health approach (37), both in epidemiological investigations and in prevention and control measures as well as pandemic preparedness for SARS-CoV-2 and other emerging zoonotic infectious diseases.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.12.08.416339v1 on bioRxiv