No abstract

RESEARCH LETTERS converged toward the same result: the convalescentphase serum from the cat contained immunoglobulins against SARS-CoV-2, which were absent from the serum from control cats. These antibodies target several distinct viral proteins, and they caused a total neutralizing effect up to a much higher dilution than those from the owner's serum. This household cat was therefore productively infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus excreted by its owner, and the infection caused a nonfatal but nevertheless severe disease, mainly of the respiratory system (Videos 2-6). Public health officials are still learning about SARS-CoV-2, but no current evidence indicates that pets play a role in spreading the virus. Therefore, taking measures against companion animals that may compromise their welfare is not justified.

No abstract

The H5N1 influenza virus, which killed humans and poultry in 1997, was a reassortant that possibly arose in one type of domestic poultry present in the live-poultry markets of Hong Kong. Given that all the precursors of H5N1/97 are still circulating in poultry in southern China, the reassortment event that generated H5N1 could be repeated.

Surrogate neutralization assays for SARS-CoV-2 that can be done without biosafety-level-3 containment and in multiple species are desirable. We evaluate a recently developed surrogate virus neutralization test (sVNT) in comparison to 90% plaque reduction neutralization tests (PRNT90) in human, canine, cat and hamster sera. With PRNT90 as reference, sVNT had sensitivity of 98.9% and specificity of 98.8% respectively. Using a panel of immune sera to other coronaviruses, we confirm the lack of cross reactivity to other coronaviruses in SARS-CoV-2 sVNT and PRNT90 assays, except for cross-reactivity to SARS-CoV-1 in sVNT.