According to a Dutch study conducted by Dr. Els Broens of Utrecht University, humans are able to transmit COVID-19 to their pets.

The study found that a surprising number of domestic animals, such as cats and dogs caught the virus from their owners.

Broens told Reuters Thursday, “About one in five pets will catch the disease from their owners.”

“Luckily, the animals do not get very ill from it.”

The study examined 154 cats and 156 dogs from 196 different households where individuals were known to have been infected with the virus.

Around 17 percent of the animals had COVID-19 antibodies, equivalent to 31 cats and 23 dogs.

A PCR test was taken from animals, which found that six cats and seven dogs (4.2 percent of the surveyed animals) had an active infection.

But results from further testing showed that animals are able to recover quicker than humans and did not transmit it to other pets under the same roof.

Broens believes that one of the main factors of house pets contracting the virus was due to the affection shown by owners.

“A lot of the pet owners are in very close contact, like they sleep with their animals in their bed, so you can imagine that there’s close contact, so that transmission can take place,” she said.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, scientists speculated that COVID-19 was first detected among bats, and it has been known that non-human mammals are also able to contract the virus, with only a relatively small number of them becoming seriously ill.

So far, minks have been known to be infected by humans who contracted the coronavirus and were able to pass it on to humans too.