2026-04-13T02:42:48Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request
oai:recercat.cat:2117/3312312026-01-30T07:31:44Zcom_2072_1033col_2072_452950
RECERCAT author Segalés, Joaquim author Puig, Mariona author Rodon, Jordi author Avila-Nieto, Carlos author Carrillo, Jorge author Cantero, Guillermo author Terrón, Maria Teresa author Cruz, Sílvia author Parera, Mariona author Noguera-Julián, Marc author Izquierdo-Useros, Nuria author Guallar, Victor author Vidal, Enric author Valencia, Alfonso author Blanco, Ignacio author Blanco, Julià author Clotet, Bonaventura author Vergara-Alert, Júlia 2020-10 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19, is considered a zoonotic pathogen mainly transmitted human to human. Few reports indicate that pets may be exposed to the virus. The present report describes a cat suffering from severe respiratory distress and thrombocytopenia living with a family with several members affected by COVID-19. Clinical signs of the cat prompted humanitarian euthanasia and a detailed postmortem investigation to assess whether a COVID-19−like disease was causing the condition. Necropsy results showed the animal suffered from feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe pulmonary edema and thrombosis. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was only detected in nasal swab, nasal turbinates, and mesenteric lymph node, but no evidence of histopathological lesions compatible with a viral infection were detected. The cat seroconverted against SARS-CoV-2, further evidencing a productive infection in this animal. We conclude that the animal had a subclinical SARS-CoV-2 infection concomitant to an unrelated cardiomyopathy that led to euthanasia.We appreciate the collaboration of Esther Zamora, Carla Zamora, and their relatives, the owners of Negrito (C1) and Whisky (C2). We also thank Mónica Pérez from IRTA-CReSA for the histopathology laboratory work, and M. Pilar Armengol and the translational genomics platform team at the Institut de Recerca Germans Trias i Pujol for the sequencing studies. We also acknowledge the crowdfunding initiative of IrsiCaixa, https://www.yomecorono.com.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Open Access Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Spain Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Ciències de la salut COVID-19 (Disease) Transmission SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 Cat COVID-19 (Malaltia) Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in a cat owned by a COVID-19−affected patient in Spain Article