Community Chat

[Icegoddess]

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@sunshine45 wrote:

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@chlema wrote:

@sunshine45 Zoo officials said the test that was done was not the same as the test that is used on animals, so human testing kits were not used. 

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very interesting......surprised they could create a test kit so quickly for animals when they have not been able to keep up with providing them for humans.

i wonder just how many other animals are infected or if there are any anywhere else?

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@sunshine45 I was reading, I think it was here, the other day about a vaccine for Corona in dogs that has been around for quite some time, so it is not a new disease in animals.  This particular strain is a new strain.  So, maybe they were able to use a generic covid test for animals.

[MorningLover]

PBS org 

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

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

The staff figured there could be a relatively routine explanation for the cats’ symptoms but tested Nadia for coronavirus out of “due diligence and an abundance of caution,” Breheny said. Only Nadia was tested because it takes anesthesia to get a sample from a big cat, and she had already been knocked out to be examined.

Calle said the test was different from the one used for people and was carried out by a veterinary school laboratory, not one that handles human samples.

“There is no competition for testing between these two very different situations,” he said......