Your feline friend may be bringing home more than you bargained for. Those mousey hunting trophies dropped at your door might contain exotic viruses completely unknown to us, as new research suggests.
In a recent paper, researchers in Florida describe discovering a microbe inside a dead rodent that had been caught by one of the scientists’ pets, a black male cat named Pepper. Thankfully, this unexpected discovery didn’t make Pepper sick, but the virus might still pose a risk to humans.
There are all sorts of viruses and other microbes left uncatalogued in the world. And while most of these pose no danger to us, some may have the machinery and opportunity needed to jump across species and become a real problem—also known as a spillover event. This latest discovery, made by researchers at the University of Florida, illustrates the value of looking for viral threats in less conventional places…