More than 350,000 pet cats ‘caught Covid during pandemic’

Cats were swabbed between 2020 and 2022 with around 3.2 per cent testing positive for Covid

Around 3.2 per cent of cats in the UK ‘caught Covid’ during the pandemic (Nick Ansell/PA) (PA Archive)

Over 350,000 cats caught Covid during the pandemic, according to a new study.

It was already a known fact that cats could catch coronavirus but levels of infection among felines have been measured for the first time.

Swabs were taken from 2,309 cats taken to the vets in the UK between April 2020 and February 2022.

Virologists and vets from Glasgow University then analysed the swabs and found that 3.2 per cent of the samples were positive for Covid.

The highest infection levels came at the end of 2021 and the start of 2022 as one in 20 cats were testing positive.

Scientists wrote in the paper, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, that samples were “broadly representative of the domestic cat population”.

A 2022 Cats Protection report states there are around 11 million cats in the UK. That means the 3.2 per cent amounted to 352,000 cats getting the virus.

The study’s author Grace Tyson, a PhD student at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research told the Telegraph: “We looked at over 2,000 samples, and we are confident in saying that over three per cent of the UK’s cat population has been exposed to Covid and mounted a neutralising response, and this has been increasing.”

Ms Tyson added that there are likely more cases in reality as their test only looked for certain antibodies.

There has only ever been one case of a human catching coronavirus from a cat.

A feline in Thailand caught Covid from its owners and then sneezed in a vet’s face while being swabbed.

The vet was wearing a mask but said she could have caught the infection through her eyes. Both the cat and vet recovered.

Experts believe cats are only infectious for a few days and don’t spread much of the virus if they catch it.

Scientists don’t yet know the long-term impact of Covid on cats and the risks this can present to humans, as cats could be harbourers of the disease for new variants, which could spread back to humans.

Ms Tyson added that while our knowledge of the pathology of cats iss no match for what we know about humans, there are known cases of serious fever and respiratory illnesses they can catch.