a cat with no covid-19 was cohoused with each of the inoculated cats

[GoodTaste]

The expression "a cat with no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection (for convenience, let's call it a well cat X) was cohoused with each of the inoculated cats (let's call them ill cats - three ill cats here named A,B,C.) " appears, at first sight, to have two possibilities for the cohousing: (1) X stays with either A,B,C - for example, X and A (so the experimentors have 3 well cats); (2) X stays, in turn, with A, B, C (so there is only one well cat).

Further reading of the article indicates that only (1) is correct.

The question here is whether you native English speakers also have the same feeling that at the first sight of the expression it points out the two possibilities. Or is it absolutely clear to you that it only means (1)?

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Reports of human-to-feline transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)1 and of limited airborne transmission among cats2 prompted us to evaluate nasal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 from inoculated cats and the subsequent transmission of the virus by direct contact between virus-inoculated cats and cats with no previous infection with the virus. Three domestic cats were inoculated with SARS-CoV-2 on day 0. One day after inoculation, a cat with no previous SARS-CoV-2 infection was cohoused with each of the inoculated cats to assess whether transmission of the virus by direct contact would occur between the cats in each of the three pairs (Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org). Nasal and rectal swab specimens were obtained daily and immediately assessed for infectious virus on VeroE6/TMPRSS2 cells.3

-from New England Journal of Medicine May 13, 2020
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2013400?query=featured_home

 

[jutfrank]

No, it isn't obvious at all. Like you, on first reading, I supposed that there was only one well cat. This is because of the use of the singular countable noun phrase a cat, which leads a reader to imagine just one cat.

 

[GoesStation]

I had no problem reading it as a different cat in each case. This doesn't seem like unusual wording to me.

 

[Tdol]

And it does say three pairs. It'c clear enough for me.