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Review
. 2020 Mar 20:8:83.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2020.00083. eCollection 2020.

Influenza A Virus Infection in Cats and Dogs: A Literature Review in the Light of the "One Health" Concept

Stéphanie Borland  1 , Patrice Gracieux  1 , Matthew Jones  2 , François Mallet  3 , Javier Yugueros-Marcos  1
Affiliations
Review

Influenza A Virus Infection in Cats and Dogs: A Literature Review in the Light of the "One Health" Concept

Stéphanie Borland et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Influenza A viruses are amongst the most challenging viruses that threaten both human and animal health. Constantly evolving and crossing species barrier, the emergence of novel zoonotic pathogens is one of the greatest challenges to global health security. During the last decade, considerable attention has been paid to influenza virus infections in dogs, as two canine H3N8 and H3N2 subtypes caused several outbreaks through the United States and Southern Asia, becoming endemic. Cats, even though less documented in the literature, still appear to be susceptible to many avian influenza infections. While influenza epidemics pose a threat to canine and feline health, the risks to humans are largely unknown. Here, we review most recent knowledge of the epidemiology of influenza A viruses in dogs and cats, existing evidences for the abilities of these species to host, sustain intraspecific transmission, and generate novel flu A lineages through genomic reassortment. Such enhanced understanding suggests a need to reinforce surveillance of the role played by companion animals-human interface, in light of the "One Health" concept and the potential emergence of novel zoonotic viruses.

Keywords: cat; dog; influenza; interspecies transmission; one health; public health; zoonosis.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Dogs and cats as mixing vessels for influenza A virus. In green and light blue boxes are represented the genomic structure of reassortants that have been reported in dogs and cats, respectively. The host origin of the eight segments of viral RNA are displayed as follows: in gray, human; orange, avian; purple, swine; green, canine. Solid arrows indicate well-described interspecies events, circle arrows indicate gene reassortment events and dashed arrows represent the potential for those novel viral combinations to jump to humans, although no such case has been reported so far. See text for further details.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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