Ok, what’s all these mumbo-jumbo all about now?
SARS-CoV-2 is the pathogen that causes Covid-19 in us, the unfortunate humans, and it has mutated to goodness-knows how many times or whatever form, but the basic form is still there, hence, it’s still Covid-19.
FCoV is the feline coronovirus that causes the common coronavirus infection in cats. In most cats, it presents as mild diarrhoea and street cats are known to overcome it without any treatment, but less than 5% of these cases can turn into FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) which was known to be fatal until recent years. I shall write more about this in a later post.
Is FIP the same as COVID?
SARS-CoV-2 and FCoV differ in terms of some pathogenic, clinical and pathological features. However, some of the pathogenic and immunopathogenic events that are well known in cats FIP seem to be present also in people with COVID-19.
When Covid-19 first broke out and infected us humans, there was a theory (supported by anecdotal evidence) that cat-carers who had been exposed to the feline coronovirus (FCov) had some level of immunity and protection against the Covid-19.
Note that it’s just “some level of protection” and not a blanket 100% protection.
However, through the years that Covid-19 has become endemic and part of our lives now, this hypothesis, unfortunately, isn’t exactly true.
There are cat-carers who had been exposed to the feline coronavirus or even those in direct contact and active research in helping cats with FIP who was unfortunate enough to be infected with Covid-19. There are also cat-carers like some of my friends who have had a host of relatives living in the same house getting Covid-19 and yet, they escaped the infection totally!
But all said, I guess there is no clear-cut evidence at all on that initial theory.
So, it falls under my theory of life being 50% effort and 50% chance!
Mr Zurik had FIP and Minnie, when first rescued, was detected to have a small amount of feline coronavirus in her, but the vet said she probably had it “a long time ago” from the street and recovered on her own.
How many more of our cats had/have the FCoV in them, I don’t know, unless I get everyone tested, which I am not going to do. Everyone has been from the street unless they were born in our house (Cleo, Rey, Robin, Lynx, Kai, Akira, Indra) and even then, we have soil, earth and grass for them and they all use shared sandpits as toilets, so it’s really hard to say.
How exposed have I been? I don’t know, but at this juncture with Jia-Wen and my husband having contracted Covid-19, I’m hoping like crazy I have some immunity from my cats!!