Companion animals likely do not spread COVID-19 but may get infected themselves
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Companion animals likely do not spread COVID-19 but may get infected themselves Anna Csiszar & Ferenc Jakab & Teresa G. Valencak & Zsófia Lanszki & Gábor Endre Tóth & Gábor Kemenesi & Stefano Tarantini & Vince Fazekas-Pongor & Zoltan Ungvari
Received: 18 June 2020 / Accepted: 31 July 2020 # American Aging Association 2020
Abstract Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). From the epidemiological data, the picture emerges that the more severe etiopathologies among COVID-19 patients are found in elderly people. The risk of death due to COVID-19 increases exponentially with age. Eight out of 10 COVID-19 related deaths occur in people older than 65 years of age. Older patients with comorbid conditions such as hypertension, heart failure, diabetes mellitus, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancer have a much higher case fatality rate. Governments and public health authorities all over the world have realized that protections A. Csiszar : S. Tarantini : Z. Ungvari (*) Vascular Cognitive Impairment and Neurodegeneration Program, Reynolds Oklahoma Center on Aging/Center for Geroscience and Healthy Brain Aging, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 975 NE 10th Street, BRC 1311, Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA e-mail: [email protected] A. Csiszar : S. Tarantini : Z. Ungvari International Training Program in Geroscience, Theoretical Medicine Doctoral School/Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary A. Csiszar : S. Tarantini : V. Fazekas-Pongor : Z. Ungvari International Training Program in Geroscience, Doctoral School of Basic and Translational Medicine/Department of Public Health, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
of vulnerable older adults should be a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease. The SARS-CoV-2 virus was originally transmitted likely from a bat or a pangolin to humans. Recent evidence suggests that SARS-CoV-2, similar to other coronaviruses, can infect several species of animals, including companion animals such as dogs, cats, and ferrets although their viral loads remain low. While the main source of infection transmission therefore is human to human, there are a few rare cases of pets contracting the infection from a SARS-CoV-2-infected human. Although there is no evidence that pets actively transmit SARS-CoV-2 via animal-to-human transmission, senior pet ownership potentially may pose a small F. Jakab : Z. Lanszki : G. E. Tóth : G. Kemenesi Szentágothai Research Center, Virological Research Group, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary F. Jakab : Z. Lanszki : G. E. Tóth : G. Kemenesi Faculty of Sciences, Institute of Biology, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary F. Jakab : Z. Lanszki : G. E. Tóth : G. Kemenesi National Coronavirus Research Center, University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary T. G. Valencak College of Animal Sciences, Zhej
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