Cat owners warned to take care during Covid – 19 lockdown

Two eminent professors have encouraged cat owners to take extra precautions when near their pets and highlighted the importance of hand washing.

Prof Eric Fèvre, chair of veterinary infectious diseases at the University of Liverpool, said: “People should take usual precautions of hand washing when handling their pets, and avoid excessively intimate contact, especially if sick with Covid.

Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist from the University of Nottingham recently stated in the national press: “Obviously, if you think you have Covid-19 and share a house with a cat, then it would be sensible to limit close interactions with your furry friend until you are better.”

Some cat owners do allow their pets to roam freely at will. It is also known that the virus can live on surfaces. Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. Therefore, transmission to humans of the virus via an infected cat’s fur is potentially not impossible.

Feline transmission to humans has not yet been fully established but infected pet owners have been warned to be careful. We cannot take enough precautions to halt the spread of this terrible disease. Furthermore, our NHS needs all the help it can get.

Billions of people around the world are following sensible advice to practise social distancing to prevent the alarming spread of a new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. The virus joins a growing list of emerging zoonotic diseases or diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, or parasites that spread from animals to humans.

Lab experiments directed on a small number of cats found they can transfer the infection to one another through respiratory droplets. Moreover, health officials in Belgium confirmed a domestic cat had contracted Covid-19 after its owner had displayed symptoms.

Total officially recorded deaths so far, as given related to Coronavirus in the UK are 4,934 – as of 8/4/2020.

International death toll figures today stands at 70,172.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

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