The apes at the San Diego Zoo and its affiliated safari park are being vaccinated. The park encourages veterinarians to administer vaccinations into their arms through a fence when it's time for them to be vaccinated.
"It's pretty awesome," said Lisa Peterson, owner of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. "Our great apes have been taught to take part in their own treatment."
Gorillas Tested Positive
A group of eight gorillas at the safari park tested positive for the coronavirus on January 11th. They were quarantined, treated, and are now on their way to recovery.
"We see their usual moods and vivacity return, so we're delighted that we were able to get them through it," Peterson said.
Related Article: Scientists Double Effort to Find Possible Next Pandemic, Caused by Other Zoonotic Diseases
Vaccination
The zoo agreed to vaccinate its apes after an epidemic among the gorillas at the safari park. Since then, six bonobos, four orangutans, and three gorillas have received vaccines. Karen, the first orangutan to undergo open-heart surgery in 1994, was one of them.
Prevention
The veterinary pharmaceutical firm Zoetis developed the COVID-19 vaccine that the San Diego Zoo used on its primates. The vaccine has been licensed for trial use by the zoo by the United States Department of Agriculture.
What kind of vaccine?
It is not the same vaccine as is administered to humans. While the virus is the same, the adjuvant - a component of the vaccine that aids immune response - must be different, according to Mahesh Kumar, senior vice president of global biologics at Zoetis.
"The antigen must be combined with a carrier or adjuvant that is unique to the animal," he says.
Covid in Animals
When dogs in Hong Kong were sick with COVID-19 last year, Zoetis began creating a COVID-19 vaccine for dogs and cats. The US Department of Agriculture, on the other hand, has not authorized vaccinations for dogs and cats. However, it is proposing one for minks, who are extremely susceptible and had to be culled in Denmark following a major outbreak last year.
Many other zoos have contacted Zoetis about the vaccine, according to Kumar.
However, some zoos prioritize vaccinating workers who deal with livestock. Each of them is the Saint Louis Zoo.
"Keeping our workers secure is the most important thing we do to keep our animals safe," said Dr. Luis Padilla, the zoo's vice president of animal collections.
Taking Care
Workers at the zoo, he said, wear PPE among the animals and are screened regularly for COVID-19 signs and exposures. The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have both had their employees vaccinated.
Zoos are still keeping track of their animals to see if they can learn something new about how viruses spread between animals and humans.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, animals are responsible for 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases. COVID-19 is believed to have started in bats and was introduced to humans in 2019.
Dr. Sharon Deem, an epidemiologist at the Saint Louis Zoo, believes that learning more about cross-species transmission will help deter potential pandemics.
"So you don't contact us in a few years to complain for COVID-23 or COVID-25," she explains, referring to the naming tradition that includes the year of transmission.
Back to Business
Zoos are one of the few places that humans and animals can communicate in a safe climate. Vaccinating animals and shielding zoo personnel are all focused on the premise that animal and human welfare are intertwined, a term is known as One Health in public health circles.
"If we are to defend ourselves, we have to care for the plants and wildlife, as well as the ecosystems and conditions in which they exist," said Peterson of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
ALSO READ: Despite Low Seizure Amount, Illegal Wildlife Trade May Boom Because of Covid-19
For more news update about anything wildlife related, don't forget to follow Nature World News!
© 2024 NatureWorldNews.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
