Can I get SARS from cats? There is no evidence to suggest this. Most animal diseases are species specific – this means that they spread only from cat to cat, and not from cat to human, or even cat to dog. At the moment, we know that there have been thousands of cases of SARS transmitted from person to person, but none of these have been traced to any cats. The outbreak at Hong Kong’s Amoy Gardens apartment was traced to their toilet systems, which was in infected by the brother of a patient, and NOT to a pet cat, as earlier rumours wrongly suggested. Dr David L. Heymann, Executive Director of the World Health Organisations’ (WHO’s) communicable disease programme has also said that Hong Kong investigators have ruled out cockroaches and cats as SARS virus vehicles. Am I at risk from my pet cat? If you have a home cat, even IF the disease could be spread human to cat, or vice versa (and no scientific evidence suggests it can), you are more likely to give it to your cat than the other way around. However, scientists now report that cats are resistant to the virus and are thus unlikely to transmit it. Two private veterinarians in Singapore, Dr Jean Paul Ly and Dr Subramaniam Thiruchelvam have also said that animals are unlikely to be susceptible to SARS and NOT likely to transmit it. Both said in an article in the New Paper on April 12th, that they had not seen any SARS infected animals since the outbreak. What about the strays downstairs? Again, we reiterate that there is nothing to suggest cats can transmit SARS to people or vice versa. For more information, or if you would like this fact sheet in Mandarin, please email us at info@catwelfare.org.