Molecular detection of sars-cov-2 (covid-19) in cats in Kota Bharu and Bachok, Kelantan

This research aimed to explore the COVID-19 occurrence in domestic cats in Kota Bharu and Bachok, Kelantan, and subsequently demonstrate the natural transmission of SARS-CoV-2 between people and domestic cats. Samples were collected from 26 SARS-CoV-2 positive household cats after obtaining consent from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK) and the Final Year Project (FYP) Committee (UMK/FPV/ACUE/FYP/014/2022). Oropharyngeal swabs were used to prepare samples and then processed for reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay (RT-PCR). The results show that only 1 of the cats tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 while the other 25 tested negative. In conclusion, there is a possibility that cats in Kota Bharu and Bachok, Kelantan, were infected with SARS-CoV-2 from the owners. Positive control showed a bright band of predicted size, confirming this finding.
Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, cats, oropharyngeal, RT-PCR