COVID-19: Tiger In US Zoo Tests Positive

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the newcoronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animalin the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said.

The 4-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia and six othertigers and lions that have also fallen ill — are believed to have been infectedby a zoo employee who wasn't yet showing symptoms, the zoo said. The firstanimal started showing symptoms March 27, and all are doing well and expectedto recover, said the zoo, which has been closed to the public since March 16amid the surging coronavirus outbreak in New York.

The test result stunned zoo officials: "I couldn't believeit," director Jim Breheny said. But he hopes the finding can contribute to theglobal fight against the virus that causes COVID-19.

"Any kind of knowledge that we get on how it's transmitted,how different species react to it, that knowledge somehow is going to provide agreater base resource for people," he said in an interview.

The finding raises new questions about the transmission of the virus in animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which confirmed Nadia's test result at its veterinary lab, said there are no known cases of the virus in U.S. pets or livestock.

"There doesn't appear to be, at this time, any evidence that suggests that the animals can spread the virus to people or that they can be a source of the infection in the United States," Dr. Jane Rooney, a veterinarian, and a USDA official said in an interview.

The USDA said it's not recommending routine coronavirustesting of animals, in zoos or elsewhere, or of zoo employees. Still, Rooneysaid a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA'sNational Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came backnegative except Nadia's.

The coronavirus outbreaks around the world are driven byperson-to-person transmission, experts say. There have been a handful ofreports outside the U.S. of pet dogs or cats becoming infected after closecontact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positivefor a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kongagriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldn't pass thevirus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners.

Some researchers have been trying to understand thesusceptibility of different animal species to the virus, and to determine howit spreads among animals, according to the Paris-based World Organization forAnimal Health.

The American Veterinary Medical Association and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been recommending that out of an abundance of caution, people ill with the coronavirus should limit contact with animals' advice that the veterinary group reiterated after learning of the tiger's test result. In general, the CDC also advises people to wash their hands after handling animals and do other things to keep pets and their homes clean.

At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigersand three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibitedsome wheezing and loss of appetite, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo's chiefveterinarian.

The staff figured there could be a relatively routineexplanation for the cats' symptoms but tested Nadia for coronavirus out of "duediligence and an abundance of caution," Breheny said. Only Nadia was testedbecause it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat, and she had alreadybeen knocked out to be examined.

Calle said the test was different from the one used forpeople and was carried out by a veterinary school laboratory, not one thathandles human samples.

"There is no competition for testing between these two verydifferent situations," he said. The seven sickened cats live in two areas atthe zoo, and the animals had contact with the same worker, who is doing OK, zooofficials said. They said there are no signs of illness in other big cats onthe property.

Staffers who work with the cats will now wear infection-protection garb, as primate keepers have done for years because of the animals' closer genetic ties to human beings, Breheny said.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and can be fatal.