Tiger in NYC's Bronx Zoo lab tests positive for coronavirus

A good tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested great for the brand new coronavirus, in what is thought to be the primary known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia - and six other tigers and lions which have also fallen ill - are thought to have already been infected by a zoo employee who wasn’t yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The first animal started exhibiting symptoms March 27, and each is doing well and likely to recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the general public since March 16 amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in NY.

The test result stunned zoo officials: “I couldn’t believe it,” director Jim Breheny said. But he hopes the finding can donate to the global fight against the virus that triggers COVID-19.

“Any kind of knowledge that we get about how it’s transmitted, how numerous species respond to it, that knowledge somehow will probably provide a greater bottom resource for folks,” he said within an interview.

The finding raises fresh questions about transmitting of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which verified Nadia’s test direct result at its veterinary laboratory, said there happen to be no known conditions of the virus in U.S. domestic pets or livestock.

“There doesn’t look like, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or they can be considered a way to obtain the infection in america,” Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian and a USDA established, said in an interview.

The USDA said Sunday it’s not recommending routine coronavirus testing of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Nonetheless, Rooney said a tiny number of pets or animals in the U.S. have been analyzed through the USDA’s National Veterinary Providers Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia’s.

The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven by person-to-person transmission, professionals say.

There have been a small number of reports outside the U.S. of pet dogs or cats getting infected after close connection with contagious persons, including a Hong Kong pup that tested positive for a low degree of the pathogen in February and early on March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities figured most dogs and cats couldn’t move the virus to humans but could test great if uncovered by their owners.

Some researchers have been trying to comprehend the susceptibility of distinct animal species to the virus, also to determine how it spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization for Pet Health.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already been recommending that out of a good amount of caution, persons ill with the coronavirus should limit connection with animals - advice that the veterinary group reiterated after learning of the tiger’s test result.

Generally, the CDC likewise advises people to clean their hands after handling animals and do other activities to keep domestic pets and their homes clean.

At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, plus some of the cats exhibited lots of wheezing and lack of appetite, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo’s chief veterinarian.

The staff figured there could be a relatively routine description for the cats’ symptoms but analyzed Nadia for coronavirus out of “homework and a good amount of caution,” Breheny explained. Just Nadia was tested since it takes anesthesia to acquire a sample from a major cat, and she got already been knocked out to come to be examined.

Calle said the test was not the same as the a single used for folks and was completed by a veterinary school laboratory, not the one which handles human samples.

“There is absolutely no competition for testing around these two completely different situations,” he said.

The seven sickened cats reside in two areas at the zoo, and the animals had connection with the same worker, who is carrying out OK, zoo officials said. They said there happen to be no signs of illness in additional big cats on the property.

Staffers who work with the cats will at this point wear infection-protection garb, seeing as primate keepers did for years as a result of the animals’ closer genetic ties to humans, Breheny said.

For many people, the coronavirus causes mild or modest symptoms, such as a fever and cough that get rid of in 2-3 weeks. For a few, especially older people and people, it could cause more severe condition, including pneumonia, and will be fatal.