Companion animals have not contributed to the spread of the coronavirus infection as was suspected at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020), since researchers from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) have shown that SARS- CoV-2 is transmitted from humans to pets (retro-contagion), but not the other way around, according to the results of studies carried out during the pandemic.
Although the relationship between pets and SARS-CoV-2 has made headlines and news around the world, mainly due to concern that companion animals could transmit the infection, research carried out in The COV20/01385 and ANTICIPA-UCM projects have shown that pets contract the infection when they come into contact with sick people –both through the respiratory and digestive tracts–, and when they have already been infected, they eliminate low viral loads, without transmission being observed between them, nor that they pose a risk to people.
New preventive and therapeutic techniques to control COVID
The investigations carried out by the groups that make up this project are included in the publication of the ANTICIPA-UCM research project led by the UCM and whose objective is to develop new diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic products to control COVID-19. This first publication includes the result of the management of the COVID-LOT program, designed and developed as of December 2020 to maintain a preventive survey of infectivity by the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the university community of the Complutense University of Madrid.
The analyzes of the COVID-LOT program will allow us to present a complete diagnosis of the COVID situation when we enter the 4th autumn-winter period since the start of the pandemic
Until last July, COVID-LOT has managed the extraction, processing and analysis of around 200,000 saliva samples from people belonging to the Complutense university community, which has made it possible to detect 2,000 positives for SARS-Cov-2 -a large part of them asymptomatic– and prevent the spread of infectivity and significantly reduce the exposure of the most vulnerable groups.
The infectivity data provided by COVID-LOT have reflected in parallel the evolution of infectivity at the national level, and especially in the Community of Madrid, throughout the different waves identified during the period in which these data were collected. public. As of March 28, 2022, when public data on infectivity in the general population decreased drastically, COVID-LOT remained the sole witness of the evolution of COVID infectivity.
An ongoing analysis of the genomics of the positive samples detected by COVID-LOT over the last two years will make it possible to determine how the different strains of SARS-CoV-2 have succeeded each other as the different waves appeared and gave rise to to periods of different epidemiological incidence. These analyzes will also make it possible to present a complete diagnosis of the COVID situation when we enter the 4th autumn-winter period since the start of the pandemic.
Source: Complutense University of Madrid (UCM)
