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27 Jul 2020

People with Covid symptoms should ‘limit contact with their cats’ – Glasgow University’s Prof Margaret Hosie

Presenter

A cat has been diagnosed with Covid-19, after apparently catching it from its owners.

It’s the first time a pet has tested positive for the disease in the UK, although Public Health England insisted it should not be cause for alarm.

The cat and its owners have made a full recovery.

However, a million mink have been culled on fur farms in Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands after evidence that the virus may be passed on from animals to humans, although it’s very rare.

The Dutch authorities say two workers there contracted the virus from mink.

Prof Margaret Hosie, from the University of Glasgow Centre for Virus research, said they have been screening hundreds of samples for Covid-19 infections in the UK’s cat population.