# High SARS-CoV-2 Exposure in Feline Residents of a Cat Café in Texas, United States, 2021–2022

## TL;DR

Cats in a Texas cat café had high exposure to SARS-CoV-2, showing that human-cat interactions can lead to infections in animals.

## Contribution

Demonstrates that congregate cat settings may be high-risk for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans to cats.

## Key findings

- 50% of cats had SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, indicating prior exposure.
- One cat remained seropositive for over 8 months.
- No cats tested positive via qRT-PCR, suggesting past infections without active shedding.

## Abstract

Animal infections with the pandemic virus SARS-CoV-2 raise concerns for impacts on animal health and spillover transmission to humans. Different viral variants may impact animals in different ways, so ongoing animal surveillance is critical for veterinary and public health. We tracked a cohort of cats that resided in a cat café, where dozens of patrons visit daily to interact with cats, as this congregate animal setting may represent a setting of high transmission risk due to frequent human–cat interactions. We found that half the cats were exposed and harbored neutralizing antibodies to the virus, demonstrating that such settings may be important in the epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2.

Congregate animal settings can serve as foci for the increased transmission of pathogens, including zoonoses. Domestic cats have been shown to be reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 but the public health importance of infected cats has not yet been determined. A population of indoor-only residential cats at a cat café in central Texas with a high level of human interaction was evaluated for infection with SARS-CoV-2 in a longitudinal study in 2021–2022. Among 25 cats, none were qRT-PCR-positive, while 50% harbored SARS-CoV-2-neutralizing antibodies, including 1 that remained seropositive for >8 months. The high level of human exposure in this unique congregate cat setting—in which dozens of new visitors interact with the cats every day—likely facilitated the human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 that led to a 50% infection prevalence in cats. This work was conducted when the Delta and Omicron variants predominated. Given that feline susceptibility to infection and shedding of a virus may vary across different viral variants, veterinary surveillance may be an important component of veterinary and human health risk assessments.