Vets warn of Kent variant’s possible link to heart problems in pets

Heart problems have also been associated with people suffering from long Covid
FILES-BRITAIN-HEALTH-VIRUS-THEFT-DOGS
The number of cases were nearly 10 times what the vet would normally see at this time of year.
AFP via Getty Images

Vets are warning of a possible link between the Kent variant of Covid-19 and heart problems in cats and dogs.

It comes after a slight increase in pets suffering with myocarditis at a specialist veterinary hospital in Buckinghamshire during the pandemic’s second wave.

The number of cases seen at the vet were not huge – just 18 in total – but it was nearly 10 times higher than what the hospital would normally see.

Research led by Luca Ferasin, a cardiologist at the Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre, found that some of the animals with heart problems had also been infected with the B117 Kent variant.

The pets had initially been referred to him after developing symptoms linked to heart failure, including lethargy and severe irregular heartbeats but further tests revealed that 11 of them had myocarditis.

Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle.

In most of the cases, the pet’s owner had experienced Covid symptoms or tested positive three to six weeks before their pet became ill.

Curious as to whether or not there was a link, Dr Ferasin took blood samples and swabs from the animals with the heart condition and tested them for Covid.

He found that two cats and a dog tested positive for the virus in their rectal samples, and a further two cats and a dog had antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 in their blood. 

Dr Ferasin believes that more animals would have tested positive if tests had been performed earlier.

But Margaret Hosie, a professor of comparative virology at the University of Glasgow’s centre for virus research, said that it is not clear yet whether the virus caused these heart problems.

She told the Guardian: “It is impossible to rule out the possibility that the Sars-CoV-2 shedding was an incidental finding, and it is inevitable that a proposition of any population of animals will test positive for [antibodies to coronavirus] coinciding with the peak for the second wave.”

The highly transmissible Kent variant accounts for about 95% of infections in the UK and although cats and dogs are known to have been infected with earlier variants, their symptoms were predominantly respiratory.

The cases in the Buckinghamshire vet are among the first recorded animal infections with the Kent variant.

“We don’t want to spread panic unnecessarily, especially because at the moment we have a strong suspicion of transmission from human to pet, but not vice versa – and we don’t know this for sure. But vets ought to be aware of this so that they can start testing if they suspect a potential case of Covid infection,” Dr Ferasin told the Guardian.

But his team are urging fellow Veterinarian’s to look out for signs of heart failures in pets and to get them tested for coronavirus.

He hopes getting more data will help them better understand how the new variant affects the two animals and their potential role in transmitting the virus.

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