The COVID-19 disease in the wildlife, pets, and farm animals as potential risk factors for human epidemic: A systematic review

The global outbreak of COVID-19 as a pandemic posed one of the most critical conditions for the healthcare system. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive potential transfection of COVID-19 disease to humans from pets. This study is a systematic review of the latest data on COVID-19 in the animal community (wildlife, pets, and farm) from June 2017 to May 2022. Published studies were searched in various databases, including Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Embase. Searching, data gathering, and analysis were accomplished by two reviewers separately, and conflicts between them were resolved by a third expert reviewer. In the initial research, 83 articles were found for full-text evaluation. After the reviewers’ assessment, 32 articles were included. Finally, the organisms studied in the mentioned research were classified into laboratory and non-laboratory research. The first group of laboratory animals includes rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rhesus monkeys, macaques, and pigs. In the second group, non-laboratory patients, less than 100 dogs and cats, 6 cases of large cats, 2 cases of snakes (reptiles), and 12 cases of mink and bats were included. In dogs and cats, the symptoms are more in upper respiratory tract infections, while in herbivores, these symptoms are more in the form of enteritis and diarrhea, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Infection of dogs and cats is mainly accompanied by coughing and sneezing, while there are no reports of herbivores. Animal studies suggested that other animals can be hosted with COVID-19.