The American Veterinary Medical Association reports that pet dogs and cats do not seem to be easily infected with COVID-19. They say from January 1 through May 9, 2020, only five pets have tested positive, with confirmation, for SARS-CoV-2 (the novel coronavirus which causes COVID-19) globally. This despite the fact that as of May 9, the number of infected people exceeded 4 million globally and 1.3 million in the United States.
Although there have been a handful of reports from around the world of pets being infected with SARS-CoV-2, none of these reports suggest that pets are a source of infection for people. The pets being infected seem all to have been in close contact with people with COVID-19. And there is no evidence that the virus spreads from the pets to the people.
The five pets confirmed to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 between January 1 and May 9, 2020 include two dogs and a cat in Hong Kong, and two cats in New York. There were also reports of a few additional pets in Europe or the United States with positive results on initial testing during this same time period, but confirmatory testing had not been completed.
There have been previous reports of tigers at the Bronx Zoo being infected by zookeepers, and minks in a mink farm in The Netherlands also testing positive.
Laboratories that studied ferrets, Syrian hamsters, and cats—all animals that may be kept as pets—show potential for serving as animal models of human infection, but dogs, pigs, chickens, and ducks do not. The AVMA also reports that two commercial laboratories in the U.S. tested thousands of specimens from dogs and cats from the US., South Korea, Canada, and Europe for the COVID-19 virus without any positive results.
For the full report from the AVMA, click here.
