Scientists identify a possible source for Charon's red cap

 Southwest Research Institute scientists combined data from NASA's New Horizons mission with novel laboratory experiments and exospheric modeling to reveal the likely composition of the red cap on Pluto's moon Charon and how it may have formed. This first-ever description of Charon's dynamic methane atmosphere using new experimental data provides a fascinating glimpse into the origins of this moon's red spot as described in two recent papers.

"Prior to New Horizons, the best Hubble images of Pluto revealed only a fuzzy blob of reflected light," said SwRI's Randy Gladstone, a member of the New Horizons science team. "In addition to all the fascinating features discovered on Pluto's surface, the flyby revealed an unusual feature on Charon, a surprising red cap centered on its north pole."

Soon after the 2015 encounter, New Horizons scientists proposed that a reddish "tholin-like" material at Charon's pole could be synthesized by ultraviolet light breaking down methane molecules. These are captured after escaping from Pluto and then frozen onto the moon's polar regions during their long winter nights. Tholins are sticky organic residues formed by chemical reactions powered by light, in this case the Lyman-alpha ultraviolet glow scattered by interplanetary hydrogen molecules.

"Our findings indicate that drastic seasonal surges in Charon's thin atmosphere as well as light breaking down the condensing methane frost are key to understanding the origins of Charon's red polar zone," said SwRI's Dr. Ujjwal Raut, lead author of a paper titled "Charon's Refractory Factory" in the journal Science Advances. "This is one of the most illustrative and stark examples of surface-atmospheric interactions so far observed at a planetary body."

The team realistically replicated Charon surface conditions at SwRI's new Center for Laboratory Astrophysics and Space Science Experiments (CLASSE) to measure the composition and color of hydrocarbons produced on Charon's winter hemisphere as methane freezes beneath the Lyman-alpha glow. The team fed the measurements into a new atmospheric model of Charon to show methane breaking down into residue on Charon's north polar spot.

"Our team's novel 'dynamic photolysis' experiments provided new limits on the contribution of interplanetary Lyman-alpha to the synthesis of Charon's red material," Raut said. "Our experiment condensed methane in an ultra-high vacuum chamber under exposure to Lyman-alpha photons to replicate with high fidelity the conditions at Charon's poles."

source :science daily

How elliptical craters could shed light on age of Saturn's moons

 A new SwRI study describes how unique populations of craters on two of Saturn's moons could help indicate the satellites' age and the conditions of their formation. Using data from NASA's Cassini mission, SwRI postdoctoral researcher Dr. Sierra Ferguson surveyed elliptical craters on Saturn's moons Tethys and Dione for this study, which was co-authored by SwRI Principal Scientist Dr. Alyssa Rhoden, Lead Scientist Dr. Michelle Kirchoff and Lead Analyst Dr. Julien Salmon.

"Our work aims to answer the broader question of how old these moons are. To get at this question, my colleagues and I mapped elliptical craters on the surfaces of these moons to determine their size, direction and location on the moon," Ferguson said.

Circular craters are very common and can be formed from a wide range of impact conditions. However, elliptical craters are rarer and form from slow and shallow impacts, which make them especially useful in determining an object's age because shape and orientation also indicate their impactor's trajectory.

"By measuring the direction these craters point, we can get an idea of what the impactors that made these craters looked like in a dynamical sense and from which direction they might have hit the surface," she said.

At first, Ferguson was not expecting to find a pattern among the directions of the elliptical craters, but she eventually noticed a trend along the equator of Dione, one of Saturn's small moons. There, elliptical craters were overwhelmingly oriented in an east/west pattern, while the directions were more random close to the moon's poles.

"We initially interpreted this pattern to be representative of two distinct impactor populations creating these craters," she said. "One group was responsible for creating the elliptical craters at the equator, while another, less concentrated population may be more representative of the regular background population of impactors around Saturn."

Ferguson also mapped elliptical craters on Tethys, Saturn's fifth largest moon, and found that a similar size-frequency distribution of craters is unusual for objects orbiting the Sun, but curiously matches estimates for the impactor population that appears to be present on Neptune's moon, Triton. Because that population is thought to be planetocentric, or drawn in by the ice giant's massive gravity, Ferguson's results point to the importance of considering planetocentric impactors when examining the age of objects in the Saturnian system.

"It was really astonishing to see these patterns," she said.

Ferguson believes the equatorial craters could have formed from independent disks of debris orbiting each moon or potentially a single disk that affected both moons.

"Using Triton as a guide, Tethys could reasonably be billions of years old. This age estimate is dependent on how much material was available for impacting the surface and when it was available" Ferguson said. "To be certain, of course, we will need more data, but this research tells us a lot. It can give us an idea of what the formation conditions of these moons were like. Was this a system that was completely chaotic with materials hitting these satellites every which way, or was there a neat and orderly system?"

Ferguson hopes to eventually be able to compare her data from the Saturnian moons to those of Uranus, another ice giant. While current data is inconclusive, one of the flagship missions recommended by the Planetary Science Decadal Survey, which was published in April, is a mission to Uranus and its moons.

"This is the first step toward a new perspective on the cratering history of these moons and their origin and evolution," Ferguson said.

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 Source:science daily

Stress accelerates immune aging, study finds

 Stress -- in the form of traumatic events, job strain, everyday stressors and discrimination -- accelerates aging of the immune system, potentially increasing a person's risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease and illness from infections such as COVID-19, according to a new USC study.

The research, published June 13 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could help explain disparities in age-related health, including the unequal toll of the pandemic, and identify possible points for intervention.

"As the world's population of older adults increases, understanding disparities in age-related health is essential. Age-related changes in the immune system play a critical role in declining health," said lead study author Eric Klopack, a postdoctoral scholar in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. "This study helps clarify mechanisms involved in accelerated immune aging."

As people age, the immune system naturally begins a dramatic downgrade, a condition called immunosenescence. With advanced age, a person's immune profile weakens, and includes too many worn-out white blood cells circulating and too few fresh, "naive" white blood cells ready to take on new invaders.

Immune aging is associated not only with cancer, but with cardiovascular disease, increased risk of pneumonia, reduced efficacy of vaccines and organ system aging.

But what accounts for drastic health differences in same-age adults? USC researchers decided to see if they could tease out a connection between lifetime exposure to stress -- a known contributor to poor health -- and declining vigor in the immune system.

They queried and cross-referenced enormous data sets from University of Michigan's Health and Retirement Study, a national longitudinal study of the economic, health, marital, family status, and public and private support systems of older Americans.

To calculate exposure to various forms of social stress, the researchers analyzed responses from a national sample of 5,744 adults over the age of 50. They answered a questionnaire designed to assess respondents' experiences with social stress, including stressful life events, chronic stress, everyday discrimination and lifetime discrimination.

Blood samples from the participants were then analyzed through flow cytometry, a lab technique that counts and classifies blood cells as they pass one-by-one in a narrow stream in front of a laser.

As expected, people with higher stress scores had older-seeming immune profiles, with lower percentages of fresh disease fighters and higher percentages of worn-out white blood cells. The association between stressful life events and fewer ready to respond, or naive, T cells remained strong even after controlling for education, smoking, drinking, BMI and race or ethnicity.

Some sources of stress may be impossible to control, but the researchers say there may be a workaround.

T-cells -- a critical component of immunity -- mature in a gland called the thymus, which sits just in front of and above the heart. As people age, the tissue in their thymus shrinks and is replaced by fatty tissue, resulting in reduced production of immune cells. Past research suggests that this process is accelerated by lifestyle factors like poor diet and low exercise, which are both associated with social stress.

"In this study, after statistically controlling for poor diet and low exercise, the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging wasn't as strong," said Klopack. "What this means is people who experience more stress tend to have poorer diet and exercise habits, partly explaining why they have more accelerated immune aging."

Improving diet and exercise behaviors in older adults may help offset the immune aging associated with stress.

Additionally, cytomegalovirus (CMV) may be a target for intervention. CMV is a common, usually asymptomatic virus in humans and is known to have a strong effect accelerating immune aging. Like shingles or cold sores, CMV is dormant most of the time but can flare up, especially when a person is experiencing high stress.

In this study, statistically controlling for CMV positivity also reduced the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging. Therefore, widespread CMV vaccination could be a relatively simple and potentially powerful intervention that could reduce the immune aging effects of stress, the researchers said.

In addition to Klopack, other authors include Eileen Crimmins, a University Professor and the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School; and Steve Cole and Teresa Seeman of UCLA.

source:science daily

The benefits of exercise in a pill? Science is closer to that goal

 Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine and collaborating institutions report today in the journal Nature that they have identified a molecule in the blood that is produced during exercise and can effectively reduce food intake and obesity in mice. The findings improve our understanding of the physiological processes that underlie the interplay between exercise and hunger.

"Regular exercise has been proven to help weight loss, regulate appetite and improve the metabolic profile, especially for people who are overweight and obese," said co-corresponding author Dr. Yong Xu, professor of pediatrics- nutrition and molecular and cellular biology at Baylor. "If we can understand the mechanism by which exercise triggers these benefits, then we are closer to helping many people improve their health."

"We wanted to understand how exercise works at the molecular level to be able to capture some of its benefits," said co-corresponding author Jonathan Long, MD, assistant professor of pathology at Stanford Medicine and an Institute Scholar of Stanford ChEM-H (Chemistry, Engineering & Medicine for Human Health). "For example, older or frail people who cannot exercise enough, may one day benefit from taking a medication that can help slow down osteoporosis, heart disease or other conditions."

Xu, Long and their colleagues conducted comprehensive analyses of blood plasma compounds from mice following intense treadmill running. The most significantly induced molecule was a modified amino acid called Lac-Phe. It is synthesized from lactate (a byproduct of strenuous exercise that is responsible for the burning sensation in muscles) and phenylalanine (an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of proteins).

SOURCE:science daily

Biochemistry researchers repair and regenerate heart muscle cells

 Researchers at the University of Houston are reporting a first-of-its-kind technology that not only repairs heart muscle cells in mice but also regenerates them following a heart attack, or myocardial infarction as its medically known.

Published in the Journal of Cardiovascular Aging, the groundbreaking finding has the potential to become a powerful clinical strategy for treating heart disease in humans, according to Robert Schwartz, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of biology and biochemistry at the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.

The new technology developed by the team of researchers uses synthetic messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) to deliver mutated transcription factors -- proteins that control the conversion of DNA into RNA -- to mouse hearts.

"No one has been able to do this to this extent and we think it could become a possible treatment for humans," said Schwartz, who led the study with recent Ph.D graduate Siyu Xiao and Dinakar Iyer, a research assistant professor of biology and biochemistry.

Synthetic mRNA Contributes to Stem Cell-Like Growth

The researchers demonstrated that two mutated transcription factors, Stemin and YAP5SA, work in tandem to increase the replication of cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, isolated from mouse hearts. These experiments were conducted in vitro on tissue culture dishes.

"What we are trying to do is dedifferentiate the cardiomyocyte into a more stem cell-like state so that they can regenerate and proliferate," Xiao said.

Stemin turns on stem cell-like properties from cardiomyocytes. Stemin's crucial role in their experiments was discovered by Iyer, who said the transcription factor was a "game changer." Meanwhile, YAP5SA works by promoting organ growth that causes the myocytes to replicate even more.

In a separate finding published in the same journal, the team will report that Stemin and YAP5SA repaired damaged mouse hearts in vivo. Notably, myocyte nuclei replicated at least 15-fold in 24 hours following heart injections that delivered those transcription factors.

source:SCIENCE DAILY

Atopic dermatitis: FDA approves Dupixent to treat young children

 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Dupixent (dupilumab) to treat atopic dermatitis in children ages 6 months to 5 years old.

• Dupixent is already approved to treat this skin condition in adults and children ages 6-17.
• This FDA approval marks the first time the agency greenlighted a biologic medication to treat atopic dermatitis in younger children.

Atopic dermatitis, the most common type of eczema, is a skin condition affecting millions of people yearly. The condition causes rough, itchy patches of skin that may crack or ooze. Eczema patches may appear red on lighter skin and gray on darker skin.

While researchers do not know the exact cause of atopic dermatitis, the National Institutes of HealthTrusted Source suggests that genetics, environmental factors, and the immune system may factor into who develops this condition.

Atopic dermatitis can affect adults, but it often first appears in childhood, usually before age 5.

Atopic dermatitis treatment options

While there is no cure for atopic dermatitis, there are some treatments to improve symptoms. Some available treatments include:

• Corticosteroid cream or ointment
• Light therapy
• Antihistamine (to help with itching)
• Antibiotic (in case of infection)
• Biologics

When atopic dermatitis is left untreated, the itching and oozing sores can worsen, potentially leading to infection due to the constant scratching.

How Dupixent works

Dupixent is a medication that falls under the category of “biologics.”

According to the FDATrusted Source, biologics include a “wide range of products such as vaccines, blood and blood components, allergenics, somatic cells, gene therapy, tissues, and recombinant therapeutic proteins.”

Doctors often prescribe biologic medications to treat asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, and atopic dermatitis. According to the NIHTrusted Source, biologics differ from more traditional medications because they “interrupt the subsequent signaling and inflammatory pathway” in the immune system.

Dupixent is administered by monthly injection and works by “targeting an underlying source of inflammation that could be the root cause of … uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema.”

If the person has atopic dermatitis caused by inflammation, then Dupixent could reduce that level of inflammation, which could provide relief from atopic dermatitis symptoms.

Effectiveness of Dupixent

In the Phase 3 trial, part of the participant group received Dupixent plus low-potency topical corticosteroids, and the control group received a placebo and the same topical corticosteroids. Researchers evaluated them every 4 weeks for four months.

By the end of the trial, the participants who received Dupixent saw a marked improvement in their symptoms. Some of the clinical trial statistics Sanofi Biotechnology, the company behind Dupixent, released from the trial include:

• Of participants who took Dupixent, 28% had clear or nearly clear skin at the end of the trial, compared to only 4% with placebo.
• Regarding disease severity, 53% of the participants in the Dupixent group reported a 75% or greater improvement in their disease severity. In contrast, the participants in the control group reported an 11% improvement in disease severity.
• Finally, 48% of participants in the Dupixent group experienced a drastic reduction in itchiness, and only 9% of the placebo group reported a significant reduction in itchiness.

Dupixent safety information

Some common side effects of Dupixent in people with atopic dermatitis include injection site reactions, eye or eyelid swelling or itching, and cold sores on the lips or in the mouth.

Additionally, some people taking Dupixent may experience allergic reactions. If someone has such a reaction, they may have symptoms such as hives, fast breathing, difficulty breathing, and dizziness.

Dr. Daniel Ganjian, a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, spoke with Medical News Today about the FDA’s approval of Dupixent for his younger patients.

“The side effect profile is pretty mild, as indicated by the fact that no one dropped out of the study because of side effects,” Dr. Ganjian commented.

“The two most common side effects in children 6 months to 5 years old are hand, foot, and mouth disease and warts [are] seen in 5% and 2% of patients, respectively,” Dr. Ganjian said. “Both are benign, easy to treat, and usually self-resolve.”

Expert opinions

“I am very excited to see that there are more options for children with eczema,” Dr. Ganjian told MNT.

Dr. Ganjian pointed out that using steroids was one of the first-line treatments for his pediatric patients, but that because of the side effects, patients should not use steroids for an extended period.

“Until now, we would have to use steroids to treat the skin, but we cannot use strong steroids for long periods of time in children since they are still developing,” Dr. Ganjian commented. “Plus, long-term steroid use can produce unwanted side effects, such as discoloration, thinning of [the] skin, as well as electrolyte abnormalities.”

Dr. Ganjian said that it is likely that practitioners will continue prescribing low dose topical steroids to children to accompany Dupixent, but “the doses can be lower in children who are on Dupixent.”

Chicago-based dermatologist Dr. Danny Del Campo also spoke with MNT about Dupixent. He noted that the drug is a “game-changer” for the current pediatric and adult patients who take it. As such, he looks forward to using it as an option for pediatric patients from 6 months to 5 years of age.

“[Dupixent] remains a very exciting alternative to ‘traditional systemic therapy’ with steroids,” Dr. Del Campo said. “When compared with the frequent lab monitoring and significant side effects from the immune suppressants, this appears to be an interesting option that is finally available to these patients.”

Atopic dermatitis: Treatment with dust mite extract?

• Atopic dermatitis, or eczema, affects an estimated 7.3% of adults in the United States.
• The condition can significantly impact the quality of life.
• Using allergen immunotherapy might be an effective treatment option for people with eczema who are also sensitive to house dust mites.

Atopic dermatitis, commonly called eczema, is a chronic skin condition. It causes itchiness and irritated, inflamed skin.

Over recent years, scientists have started to untangle the complex mechanisms that underpin it. This has helped them develop a rangeTrusted Source of new topical and systemic drugs that target the immune system.

However, experts do not know whether the effects of these drugs will change over the course of a lifetime. Also, some of these new drugs are relatively expensive.

Because people with eczema are often sensitive to other allergens, some researchers are continuing to explore the potential use of allergy immunotherapyTrusted Source. This technique involves gradually exposing people to their allergy triggers.

A recent study, which appears in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, investigated allergy immunotherapy involving dust mite extract as a treatment for eczema.

As the study authors point out, allergy immunotherapy has been used for more than 100 years; it has proven effective in treating “asthma, allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis, anaphylaxis to Hymenoptera insect venom, and food allergy.”

However, they also note that currently, “The role of allergen immunotherapy in the management of patients with atopic dermatitis is considered controversial.”

Atopic dermatitis and allergy immunotherapy

People with atopic dermatitis, or eczema, develop areas of irritated, inflamed, itchy skin. And itching these areas can lead to swelling and scaling.

The symptoms may flare up and resolve periodically. Triggers vary from person to person, but they can include dust mites, dry air, pet dander, cold, heat, pollen, and pollution.

People with eczema often have other conditions, such as allergies or asthma. This connection has prompted experts to explore allergy immunotherapy as a treatment option.

Gradually exposing a person to their allergen over time helps the body tolerate the substance, and the allergic response slowly reduces.

Doctors can provide this therapy through injections or sublingually, by placing small doses of the allergen under the tongue.

Sensitivity to dust mites

People with eczema often have sensitivity to house dust mites, microscopic parasites that eat dead human skin.

The authors of the recent study explored whether sublingual immunotherapy using house dust mite extract might help improve eczema symptoms and quality of life measures in people with both eczema and dust mite sensitivity.

It was a randomized, double-blind, placebo study. This means that neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was in the treatment or control groups until after the study’s completion.

All the participants had confirmed eczema and sensitivity to dust mites. Over 18 months, 66 participants received either the treatment or the placebo.

The scientists evaluated any improvement in eczema symptoms using a scoring system in which a higher score indicated a greater severity of symptoms.

They demonstrated that symptoms of eczema decreased more in the treatment group than in the control group.

After receiving the immunotherapy, the scores in the treatment group reduced by 55.6%. Interestingly, the eczema scores decreased by 34.5% in the placebo group. This indicates that the treatment may be an effective add-on therapy for people with eczema who also have a sensitivity to dust mites.

Marsha Willis-Karp, Ph.D., an allergy and immunology specialist at Johns Hopkins University, explained to Medical News Today:

“The study […] adds to the mounting evidence for a beneficial
effect of sublingual administration of allergen-specific immunotherapy for the
treatment of atopic dermatitis in those patients who are sensitive to the common house
dust mite.”

Study limitations and continued research

The researchers acknowledged that their study had several limitations, including that:

• The treatment may have been more effective over a longer period.
• The dosing was lower than that of previous studies.
• The treatment’s effectiveness might differ depending on age.
• The study had a high dropout rate — only 66 of 91 participants completed it.
• They did not observe an overall difference in quality of life scores between the placebo and treatment groups.

There was also a sizeable decline in symptoms among the placebo group, which calls into question the effectiveness of the treatment.

Dermatologist Dr. Yu-Chuan Jack Li explained to MNT that “[Sublingual administration of allergen-specific immunotherapy] may have limited effectiveness [for] the treatment of atopic dermatitis, except in few cases,” based on the reduction in scores among the placebo group, the limited sample size, and the fact that eczema can be caused by more than one allergen.

He also offered the following recommendation:

“I would suggest a future study with more stringent inclusion criteria, larger sample size, and lab follow-ups during the trial period. In addition, a period of ‘after-treatment’ follow-up will be helpful, too.”

Regardless, the study demonstrated improvements in eczema among people who received the treatment, suggesting that it might be helpful. As the authors note in their conclusion:

“Sublingual immunotherapy with house dust mite extract could be considered as a safe and effective add-on treatment for mite-sensitized patients with atopic dermatitis.”

Source - Medical News Today

COVID-19 and pets: What is there to know?

Can our pets become infected with SARS-CoV-2? Could they transmit the virus to other animals, or to their human companions? And can humans transmit it to animals? This Special Feature aims to answer these and more questions.

All data and statistics are based on publicly available data at the time of publication. Some information may be out of date. Visit our coronavirus hub and follow our live updates page for the most recent information on the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, much if not most of the research has focused on SARS-CoV-2’s impact on humans.

But what about our most trustworthy companions — the pets that share our homes and our lives?

According to some statistical reports, as many as 63.4 million households in the United States include a dog, and 42.7 million households include a cat, making these furry friends the two most popular nonhuman family members in the country.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

Past researchTrusted Source has indicated that, indeed, for most pet owners, their animal companions truly do count as family members.

But the COVID-19 pandemic has been fuelling fears for the health of humans and animals alike since it is unclear how — and even if — the virus that causes it affects pets such as cats and dogs.

During the lockdown in Wuhan, China, many pet owners reportedly abandoned the animals that relied on them for care and safety. Recent developments suggest that pet homelessness may also be going up in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world — all due to fears that pets might spread the coronavirus.

Yet there are also suggestions that pet adoptions may be on the rise, as the pandemic has been motivating some people to finally commit to welcoming into their lives the animal companion they always wanted.

In short, the new coronavirus has been feeding intense emotions and responses of many kinds, upturning the lives of humans and animals alike.

So, this Special Feature will present what we know, so far, about the impact of the new coronavirus on animals, such as cats and dogs, and consider what humans can do to continue to keep these faithful friends healthy and happy.

Can SARS-CoV-2 infect dogs?

There are currently very limited data about potential infections with SARS-CoV-2 in domestic animals, including cats and dogs.

Some reports — very few and far between — have suggested that these furry friends can indeed become infected with the new coronavirus.

So far, there have been only three officially confirmed cases of pets with SARS-CoV-2 infections worldwide.

Hong Kong authorities reported two of these, and they were both in dogs. The first official report of a pet affected by SARS-CoV-2 was that of a 17-year-old Pomeranian that tested “weak positive” for the infection.

According to the briefing from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) of Hong Kong, this case “indicates a low-level of infection with the virus.” The dog did not, in fact, present any symptoms of illness.

The authorities kept the dog in quarantine for a few days, after which they returned it to its owner. The dog has since died, but it is uncertain that its death had anything to do with the virus. The dog, in this case, was very advanced in age, and its owner did not allow a necropsy to establish the exact cause of death.

The second case reported in Hong Kong was that of a German Shepherd whose owner submitted it for testing alongside another dog from the same household.

While the German Shepherd tested positive for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the second dog did not, and neither canine exhibited any signs of being unwell.

According to Hong Kong officials, both the Pomeranian and the German Shepherd likely contracted the virus from their owners, who had tested positive for COVID-19.

In each case, the AFCD spokespeople emphasized that “there is currently no evidence that pet animals can be a source of COVID-19 for humans or that this virus can cause the disease in dogs.”

Can SARS-CoV-2 infect cats?                      The third official report about an animal infected with SARS-CoV-2 came from scientists from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Liège in Belgium, who detected viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the feces and vomit of a domestic cat.   

This cat also presented digestive and respiratory symptoms. Because the cat’s owner had tested positive for COVID-19, it seems likely that this, too, was a case of human-to-animal transmission.Yet, specialists associated with the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FASFC) in Belgium note that the risk of human-to-animal transmission in the case of SARS-CoV-2 is, nevertheless, most probably low:                                                              “On the basis of the elements provided, the Scientific Committee consider the risk of contamination of animals by man to be low but recommends that the veterinary services remain more vigilant and encourage epidemiological investigations in possible new suspect cases.”                                                                                                                                 There is, so far, only one study that has investigated whether various domestic animals — including cats and dogs — can contract SARS-CoV-2. Its findings now appear in the journal Science

Trusted SourceThis study concluded that cats can become infected with the virus, and they can also pass it on to other cats.

It made a similar finding about ferrets, which are members of 326,000 households in the U.S., according to the most recent data from the AVMA.

However, the researchers reported that the virus appears to be less likely to spread in dogs, as well as in pigs, chickens, and ducks.

So, how at risk are our feline friends, really? In the preliminary study, young cats became infected with the virus in an artificial setting, in which they came into direct contact with very large quantities of SARS-CoV-2 — an improbable scenario in a day-to-day situation.

Commenting on the study, Prof. Mick Bailey — who teaches Comparative Immunology at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom — notes that:

“The occasional reports of infected cats belonging to patients diagnosed with [SARS-CoV-2] does suggest that human-to-cat transmission may occur in the field, although likely to be rare. Transmission to pets did occur with [SARS-CoV], but there was no evidence for pet-to-human transmission.”

Caring for pets during the pandemic

There are few guidelines available about caring for pets during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, owners worry, especially about dogs, which require regular time spent outdoors, and about cats that are free to roam the neighborhood.

Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adviseTrusted Source that people should treat their animal companions in the same way that they “would [treat] other human family members,” ideally preventing them from “interact[ing] with people or animals outside the household.”

“If a person inside the household becomes sick, isolate that person from everyone else, including pets,” the CDC say.

Further CDC advice includes a suggestion to keep cats indoors, as much as possible, and to keep dogs on a leash while walking them, maintaining the same advised physical distance of at least 6 feet (2 meters) from any other people or animals.

CDC guidelines also suggest “[avoiding] dog parks or public places where a large number of people and dogs gather.”

Should a pet owner contract SARS-CoV-2, the CDC advise that they should:

• restrict contact with their pets or other animals
• ask another member of the household, if possible, to look after the pets
• “wear a cloth face covering and wash [their] hands before and after” interacting with pets, if no other household members can care for the animals
• not take the pet to a veterinary clinic for checkups themselves to prevent spreading the virus to the clinic

The World Organisation for Animal Health also stress that, at this time, as always, it is important not to give in to anxiety and to keep on providing loving care for our pets:

“The current spread of COVID-19 is a result of human-to-human transmission. To date, there is no evidence that companion animals play a significant role in spreading the disease. Therefore, there is no justification in taking measures against companion animals, which may compromise their welfare.“

Source - Medical News Today 

 

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