People can now transmit Coronavirus to their cats and dogs, a recent Italian Scientist says.

The Italian scientists found that people can transmit the coronavirus SARS-COV-2 to cats and dogs.

According the study which tested 540 dogs and 277 cats living in households in northern Italy, particularly in Lombardy, where someone was infected with the virus or in areas where there were many cases; coronavirus antibodies were found in 3.4 per cent of dogs and 3.9 per cent of cats, indicating they were infected with the virus.

The study has not been peer-reviewed yet. They were conducted between March and May 2020.

Swab tests for active virus infections were negative in all animals, as the virus shedding period ended after two weeks.

Thomas Mettenleiter, leader of the German Federal Research Institute for Animal Health (FLI), said the results showed that the virus could be transmitted between humans and animals.

“This confirms what we already know,” Mettenleiter said, adding that the large scale of the study was unprecedented as it was difficult to get samples.

According to Mettenleiter, most animals in the study came from households affected by the coronavirus, indicating that infection is generally transmitted from humans to animals.

He added that this confirmed the FLI’s assumption that cats and dogs don’t play a significant role in the spread of COVID-19, and that healthy people needed not limit their contact with their pets.

People, who are infected with the virus, however, should limit their contact with their pets, although there are no indications so far that animals can die of the coronavirus, according to Mettenleiter.

This leads to a reminder to to a March 2020 report that says dogs and cats can not pass on coronavirus, but can test positive.

That was the conclusion of Hong Kong’s Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department after a dog in quarantine tested weakly positive for the virus Feb. 27, Feb. 28 and March 2, using the canine’s nasal and oral cavity samples.

A unidentified spokesman for the department was quoted in a news release as saying. “There is currently no evidence that pet animals can be a source of infection of COVID-19 or that they become sick.”