科学美国人60秒 SSS 猫能感染新冠病毒（在线收听）

This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Wayt Gibbs.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是维特·吉布斯。

The COVID-19 pandemic has a lot of people stuck at home with their cats—

新冠肺炎疫情使许多人和猫困在家里，

which raises some obvious questions: Can cats catch the new coronavirus from their owners?

这引发了一些显而易见的问题：猫能从主人那里感染新冠病毒吗？

Can cats spread the disease to each other? And can people get infected by their cats?

猫能互相传播这种疾病吗？人会被猫传染吗？

Scientists have been so busy studying human-to-human transmission of the virus

科学家一直忙于研究这种病毒在人与人之间的传播，

that few, so far, have looked at how it may be able to spread among cats and the humans they live with.

以致于到目前为止，很少有人研究病毒在猫与其共同居住的人类之间的传播方式。

But a few preliminary reports within the past few days suggest that cats can catch COVID-19, probably from humans, and then give it to other cats.

但过去几天的一些初步报告表明，猫可能从身上感染新冠肺炎，之后传染给同类。

On April 5, the Bronx Zoo announced that four tigers and three lions have developed symptoms of the disease.

4月5日，布朗克斯动物园宣布，园内4只老虎和3只狮子出现新冠肺炎的症状。

Scientists at Cornell University and the USDA tested samples from one of the tigers and confirmed that it was infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

康奈尔大学和美国农业部的科学家检测了其中一只老虎的样本，证实其感染了SARS-CoV-2病毒。

And researchers at the University of Illinois looked at the samples

伊利诺伊大学的研究人员观察了这些样本，

and found that the virus in the tiger was genetically indistinguishable from strains seen in humans.

发现老虎身上的病毒与人类身上发现的毒株，在基因方面无法区别。

So the tiger must have caught this from a zookeeper—which is a little surprising.

因此老虎一定是从动物园管理员那里传染的病毒，这有点让人吃惊。

I mean, I would think six feet would be a minimum safe distance from a tiger under any circumstance.

我认为在任何环境下，老虎的最小安全距离都是6英尺。

But perhaps someone coughed on her food.

但可能有人往老虎的食物上打了喷嚏。

COVID-19 doesn't seem to be limited to big cats, either.

新冠肺炎的感染范围似乎也不局限于大型猫科动物。

Two research groups in China recently published studies on house cats in Wuhan and young cats raised in a lab.

近日，中国的两个研究小组发表了关于武汉家猫和在实验室饲养的幼猫的研究。

These preprints have not yet been peer-reviewed, and this is very early science that may well change with further study.

这些预印本尚未经过同行评审，是非常早期的科学，很可能会随着进一步研究而改变。

That said, their findings are worrisome.

尽管如此，他们的发现仍令人担忧。

The Wuhan study did blood tests on 102 cats there to see whether any had antibodies to SAR-CoV-2,

武汉的这项研究对本地的102只猫进行了血液检测，以确定是否有任何猫拥有SAR-CoV-2病毒抗体，

which would mean that they had been infected with the virus at some point.

拥有抗体意味着它们已在某个时候感染这种病毒。

Fifteen percent of the cats tested positive.

15%的猫检测呈阳性。

Three of those had been living with people who were diagnosed with COVID-19s.

其中三只猫一直与人类新冠肺炎确诊病例一起生活。

The rest of the cats were strays or had been in pet hospitals.

其余的都是流浪猫或曾在宠物医院待过的猫。

The authors write that "immediate action should be implemented to keep a suitable distance between humans and companion animals such as cats...,

作者写道，“应当立即采取行动，让人类与猫这样的宠物保持适当距离，

and strict hygiene and quarantine measures should also be carried out for these animals."

并对这些动物实施严格的卫生检疫措施。”

In a second study, scientists at a high-containment lab for animal diseases control in Harbin, China,

在第二项研究中，中国哈尔滨一家动物疾病控制高密闭实验室的科学家

deliberately squirted coronavirus into the noses of cats and other kinds of animals to see whether they became infected.

有意将冠状病毒喷入猫和其它动物的鼻子中，观察它们是否被感染。

In some good news, they did not see the virus taking hold in dogs, pigs, chickens or ducks.

好消息是，它们没有看到狗、猪、鸡或鸭感染病毒。

But it did replicate rapidly the respiratory tracts of both cats and ferrets.

但病毒确实在猫和雪貂的呼吸道内迅速繁殖。

Within a few days after infection, all of the cats they inoculated started shedding virus in their feces.

在感染后的几天内，所有被接种的猫的粪便都开始扩散病毒。

The researchers placed an uninfected cat in a cage adjacent to each infected one.

研究人员在每只感染猫旁边的笼子里，都放入一只感染猫。

One third of those healthy cats then caught the virus from their sick neighbors.

之后，三分之一的健康猫从患病邻居那里感染了病毒。

So far, the CDC says, there is no evidence that people can catch COVID-19 from their cats.

美国疾病控制与预防中心（简称CDC）表示，到目前为止，尚没有证据表明人们能从猫身上感染新冠肺炎。

But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

但没有证据并不代表证据不存在。

So until it's clearer whether the virus can leap back from cats to their owners, it would seem smart to keep your cats indoors,

因此，在弄清楚猫是否能将病毒传染给主人之前，明智的做法是让你的猫待在室内，

to wear gloves and a mask when changing the litter box and to avoid kissing or rubbing noses with your little snookums.

换猫砂时戴上手套和口罩，并避免用与你可爱的小猫亲吻和蹭鼻子。

Thanks for listening for Scientific American's 60-second Science. I'm Wayt Gibbs.

谢谢大家收听科学美国人——60秒科学。我是维特·吉布斯。