China Shenzhen Bans Dog and Cat Consumption from May..."Cats May Transmit COVID-19"

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Park Sun-mi] From May 1st, the consumption of dogs and cats will be banned in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. This is the first city in China to legally prohibit the consumption of dogs and cats.

According to the Xin Jing Bao on the 3rd, the Shenzhen authorities in Guangdong Province announced that they will implement an ordinance banning the sale and consumption of wild animals, dogs, and cats starting May 1st. This follows the central government's announcement at the end of February to ban the trade and consumption of wild animals, based on the judgment that the spread of COVID-19 may have originated from the consumption of wild animals.

An official from the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress stated, "Banning the consumption of pets such as dogs and cats aligns with the common practices of developed countries, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and meets the demands of modern human civilization."

Once Shenzhen enforces the ordinance banning the sale and consumption of wild animals, dogs, and cats, similar measures may be introduced in other regions of China.

Among Chinese researchers, there are claims that COVID-19 transmission is possible even among cats. Researchers from the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences recently published a study titled "Susceptibility of Ferrets, Cats, Dogs, and Other Domesticated Animals to SARS-Coronavirus 2" on the preprint platform bioRxiv, stating that "infection was confirmed in other cats that were in close proximity to cats infected with COVID-19."

The researchers also revealed that COVID-19 replicates efficiently in cats, and younger cats are more easily infected, and they assessed that transmission likely occurred through respiratory droplets, similar to human-to-human transmission, even without direct contact. Previously, in Hong Kong, a pet cat that had been with a COVID-19 patient tested positive for the virus.