The Comparison of Pathogenicity Among SARS-CoV-2 Variants in Domestic Cats

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2024 Sep 18

PMID 39294189

Authors

Eun-Sil Park

Yudai Kuroda

Akihiko Uda

Yoshihiro Kaku

Akiko Okutani

Akitoyo Hotta

Kango Tatemoto

Keita Ishijima

Yusuke Inoue

Michiko Harada

Yasushi Ami

Masayuki Shirakura

Shinji Watanabe

Yasushi Suzuki

Toshihiko Harada

Akira Ainai

Nozomi Shiwa

Yusuke Sakai

Naoko Iwata-Yoshikawa

Noriyo Nagata

Tadaki Suzuki

Hideki Hasegawa

Ken Maeda

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been detected or isolated from domestic cats. It is unclear whether cats play an important role in the SARS-CoV-2 transmission cycle. In this study, we examined the susceptibility of cats to SARS-CoV-2, including wild type and variants, by animal experiments. Cats inoculated with wild type, gamma, and delta variants secreted a large amount of SARS-CoV-2 for 1 week after the inoculation from nasal, oropharyngeal, and rectal routes. Only 100 TCID of virus could infect cats and replicate well without severe clinical symptoms. In addition, one cat inoculated with wild type showed persistent virus secretion in feces for over 28 days post-inoculation (dpi). The titer of virus-neutralizing (VN) antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 increased from 11 dpi, reaching a peak at 14 dpi. However, the omicron variant could not replicate well in cat tissues and induced a lower titer of VN antibodies. It is concluded that cats were highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection, but not to the Omicron Variant, which caused the attenuated pathogenicity.

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