House Cats, Ferrets Can Get SARS
October 30, 2003
www.theledger.com
House cats and ferrets can get the SARS virus and spread it to other animals, a
study found, raising a disturbing question: Can they give it to people? Data Source Provider: Press sources (Nature News
Service) A new study suggests that the pool of animals capable of harbouring the
severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus is larger than was first thought.
"You might want to quarantine the pets as well as the people" in the
event of an outbreak, suggested Dr. Robert Shope, an expert on emerging diseases
at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. "If it's been shown
that the virus can transmit from cat to cat, it doesn't take much of a leap of
faith that it will transmit to humans."
Other scientists who have studied the sometimes-deadly SARS virus say pet owners
should not overreact.
"These animals in all likelihood did not play a significant role" in
the spread of SARS to humans, said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health
Organization's chief SARS scientist.
And Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, former head of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, said: "We still don't know if they can pass the virus to
people."
Researchers discovered the vulnerability of cats and ferrets to SARS while
searching for animals to test potential vaccines.
Their study, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, also notes a
separate report that cats were found infected with the virus in a Hong Kong
apartment complex where residents contracted SARS last year.
Cats and ferrets are the first pets included on an exotic list of animals
scientists think may be able to harbor the virus.
"Cats and ferrets are only distantly related," said study co-author
Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the
Netherlands. "So this demonstrates the promiscuous nature of the
virus."
The origin of the virus that killed 774 people remains unknown. Scientists
believe people may have gotten the virus from animals that were infected by
another, still-mysterious source.
In China, where SARS festered for months before it grew into a worldwide menace
this year, exotic raccoon-dogs, ferret badgers and civets have been found
harboring a germ that is almost identical to the SARS virus.
The exotic animals were taken off the market for several months, but are being
sold again in some places, said Dr. Henk Bekedam, the WHO's representative in
Beijing.
Because of the possibility that animals can spread the respiratory virus, WHO
has suggested that animals in China and elsewhere be tested for SARS and other
diseases before they are eaten.
A SARS infection can cause flu-like symptoms, including a high fever, head and
body aches, congestion and breathing trouble. About 8,100 people are thought to
have been sickened by the virus between November 2002 and July.
For the Nature study, researchers deliberately infected six cats and six ferrets
with the virus cultured from a person who died of SARS. Drops containing the
virus were put in the animals' tracheas, eyes and noses.
The cats and ferrets began to show their infection two days later in excretions
from the throat, and they produced antibodies within 28 days. When the animals
were later put to death, the virus also was found in their respiratory tract.
The cats developed a mild case of pneumonia. The ferrets became lethargic, and
one of them died four days after it was given the virus.
Scientists also placed two healthy cats and two healthy ferrets with the
infected animals. The healthy ferrets showed signs of SARS infection after two
days. The ferrets became emaciated and died about two weeks later, though
Osterhaus said it is unclear whether this was due to the virus.
Stohr and Koplan both questioned the results of the study. Koplan, for example,
said too few animals were used to reach a firm conclusion about how cats and
ferrets become infected.
Researchers warn that SARS virus has
more sources than previously thought
[Date: 2003-10-30]
Research teams from the Netherlands and Hong Kong have found that domestic cats
and ferrets can be infected with the virus. This raises the concern that SARS
may be being carried by a range of wild or domestic animals, and could easily
jump to humans again.
Many researchers fear that the wider the pool of potential SARS carriers, the
more difficult it will prove to track the source of, and thus contain, any
future outbreak of the disease. 'It could be much, much harder than we thought,'
warned Dick Thompson of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
This latest research also added masked palm civets, racoon dogs and ferret
badgers to the list of animals capable of carrying the virus.
The results of the study did offer some positive news, however. Scientists hope
that ferrets will prove more effective for testing drugs and vaccines than the
monkeys previously used, as they mimic the symptoms of the human lung disease
that SARS causes much more closely.
Further research priorities were identified during the first meeting of the
WHO's SARS scientific research advisory committee in Geneva on 21 October. A
'gold standard' diagnostic test for the disease and air passenger flow
assessments to determine which cities are most vulnerable to international
spread were both highlighted as priority areas for action
