If there is another outbreak of SARS, you may have to quarantine your cat. That's because a new study says the virus can infect house cats and ferrets.

The study, which will be published Thursday in the journal Nature, shows for the first time that cats at the Hong Kong apartment complex where about 100 residents contracted SARS last winter were also infected.

There is no evidence the virus can jump from animal to human. But study co-author Albert D.M.E. Osterhaus, with the Institute of Virology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, said it is a possibility.

"Cats and ferrets are only distantly related," he said. "So this demonstrates the promiscuous nature of the virus."

Osterhaus and his colleagues found that the cats and ferrets were easily infected by the human strain of severe acute respiratory syndrome, but could also catch it from other infected ferrets and cats.

However, other scientists say pet owners shouldn't start getting rid of their cats.

"These animals in all likelihood did not play a significant role in spread of (SARS) to humans," said Dr. Klaus Stohr, the World Health Organization's chief SARS scientist.

Scientists believe the virus, which killed 44 people in Canada and another 730 people worldwide, may have jumped from an animal to a human at an exotic animal market in Guangdong, China.

In early September, Chinese scientists reported in the journal Science that the genetic makeup of the virus isolated in human SARS patients was 99.8 per cent genetically identical to a virus found in animals at the market.

Animals fingered as possible culprits include the ferret badger, civet cat and raccoon dogs.

The possibility of an animal to human transmission prompted the WHO to suggest that these animals and others be tested for SARS and other disease before they are eaten.

Osterhaus and his colleagues inoculated six cats and six ferrets with the virus cultured from a person who died of SARS. The animals began to show their infections two days later.

The cats did not appear to be much affected by the virus. However, the ferrets became lethargic and died four days later.

Two healthy cats and two healthy ferrets were also placed with infected animals. The ferrets eventually became emaciated and died two weeks later.