Knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and pets among pet owners referred to veterinary clinics in Iran

Covid-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome is a novel beta coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 has a putative animal origin. As SARS-CoV-2 started outspreading in the whole world, potential spill overexposure was considered in companion and pet animals, similarly because of their strict social relationship with humans. As the novel coronavirus prevalence spreads in the world with devastating impacts on human health, pets and companion animals are also becoming unessential sacrifices among the pandemic panic and concern amid the public that companion animals might play a role in spreading COVID-19 pets being obsolete or even killed. These facts led to a KAP survey design to evaluate knowledge, attitude, and practice towards COVID-19 and pets among pet owners referring to veterinary clinics. This study was conducted as a cross-sectional paper-based survey. The questionnaire comprised 56 items, of which nine were on socio-demographic profiles, 41 were on KAP of COVID-19 and pets, and the other six items were on the source of individual information about this subject. The questionnaire was answered by 462 participants anonymously in October 2020. All the statistical analyses were performed by using a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26.0. Based on the results, most general population (62.7%) had moderate knowledge about the Covid-19, and 22.1% had insufficient knowledge about this subject. The present study indicated that a higher knowledge score concerning COVID-19 was notably related to a higher likelihood of having a positive tendency and good practice when the COVID-19 outbreak. Also, our findings presented that the majority of participants (62.3%) obtained their information from social media.