bristol the recent suggestion that ministers may have to consider culling or vaccinating animals to prevent the coronavirus from picking up another dangerous mutation and jumping back to humans may sound like sudden panic but its just part of a long debate among scientistsevidence that cats could be infected with sarscov2 the virus that causes covid emerged as early as april 2020 from wuhan china evidence that they could also transmit the infection to other cats under particular conditions appeared in the same monthsince then infections have been confirmed in mink in denmark and the netherlands in big cats in zoos in dogs ferrets and a range of other species its also worth remembering that the source of sarscov2 is probably bats and that other species of wildlife may also be infectableinfection of some of these species with sarscov2 can cause actual disease creating veterinary welfare or conservation problems however transmission to or from companion animals that spend a lot of time in close contact with people also presents extra problems for trying to control a pandemic in humansfor example if transmission between humans and cats happens easily then controlling the pandemic in people might require measures to prevent it and that might include vaccinating and quarantining catsthere is good evidence for transmission from humans to cats but very little evidence for transmission from cats to humans nor is there much evidence for transmission between cats in normal situations that is not in a laboratoryat the moment theres no real reason to be concerned that infections in cats are a major problem youre at much greater risk from your family and friends with covid than from their cats although you should take normal hygiene precautions you use to reduce the risks of catching other diseases such as toxoplasmosis from catsthere is currently no major risk from our pet cats and dogs that would justify specific control methods such as culling or quarantine in the longer term though there is a concern about the appearance of new variantsthese may be more easily transmitted like the alpha variant or more able to infect vaccinated or previously infected people like the beta variant variants may cause more severe disease or they may cause less severe disease and become more like the normal winter colds or fluits almost inevitable that more of these variants will appear because the virus adapts to all our attempts to control it these new variants in people are being spotted quickly in the uk because it is carrying out the biggest surveillance programme in historythe longterm risk of sarscov2 in other species is that if the virus starts circulating in them a new even more unpleasant variant could appear and not be recognised as a problem until it gets passed back into peoplealthough rare the uk government does need to consider these possible future scenarios and the possibility of new variants appearing in animals was part of the recent report from the scientific advisory group for emergencies sage about