In Cyprus, in the eastern Mediterranean, it is a real slaughter that is currently hitting the cats of the island. In question, a form of coronavirus which, according to veterinarians’ estimates, has already caused the death of more than a third of the cats on the island since the beginning of the year. Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the Cypriot government announced in August that cats would be able to benefit from unused human medicines, including a treatment against Covid-19.
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There “ feline infectious peritonitis is the name of the evil that has been eating away at the cat population of the island of Cyprus for several months now. This infection comes from the mutation of a coronavirus often present in the intestine of cats. Very contagious between felines, this disease is not transmitted to humans.
Cyprus has around 1.2 million inhabitants for a population of around one million cats, before the appearance of this coronavirus, reminds our regional correspondent, Joel Bronner. Officially, only 107 cases have been identified in the southern part of the island, Cypriot-Greek, according to the veterinary services of the Ministry of Agriculture. A number that does not reflect reality according to animal rights activists. The association of Cypriot veterinarians believes that “ a third of cats on the island have died from this disease.
Faced with the scourge, the government has given the green light for the use of drugs against human Covid. “ Stocks of medicines that have been used to treat human coronavirus cases and are no longer in use can be made available “Sick felines, announced in a press release the government. In the form of anti-Covid pills, the drugs will be provided by the veterinary services.
A population of stray cats that has exploded
During the previous decade, these have particularly multiplied on the island, thanks in particular to the cessation of a national program for the sterilization of stray cats, in 2011, for lack of means. The cat population on the island is therefore mainly made up of stray cats. Since then, sterilizations have resumed in Cyprus, but without however settling the question of the overpopulation of these cats on the island.
Sometimes nicknamed “ cat island “Cyprus even maintains a historic relationship with these felines. In 2004, a team of archaeologists indeed discovered the burial of a man with a cat buried at his side. That was some 9,500 years ago and is, to date, the oldest evidence of cat domestication anywhere in the world.
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(And with AFP)