A fifth of the animals in a zoo tested positive for Covid

According to RCO News Agency, A new paper offers a stark reminder that the virus responsible for the disease, Covid-19, is still spreading, with nine out of 47 animals at a zoo in Brazil testing positive for Covid.

According to SA, researchers say that there is a possibility that these animals got the virus from humans.

This team, led by researchers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Minas Gerais) in Brazil, writes in its article: Zoos are unique in terms of the epidemiology of human-animal interactions. They harbor several species of wildlife from a wide range of taxonomic groups in close proximity to each other, and interactions between animals and humans, particularly with animal caretakers, occur frequently.

The corona virus experiment was conducted at the Blue Horizonte Zoo between November 2021 and March 2023, and researchers were able to sequence 3 viral genomes in 9 animals.

A maned wolf and a European yellow deer were found to be infected with the notorious alpha strain of Covid-19, and a western lowland gorilla was also diagnosed with the amicron strain.

SARS-CoV-2 strains were collected from animals that were collected near human samples from the same area.

Researchers say: Close contact between zoo animals and their caretakers is a possible route of infection transmission.

It should be noted that this applies to infections from November 2021 to January 2022, but after the zoo reopened to the public in February 2022, more animals were infected, which could be due to increased contact between the public and zookeepers with the animals.

Interestingly, the zoo map shows that the infected species are somewhat close neighbors.

Of the animals that tested positive, there were a total of three western lowland gorillas and two maned wolves, as well as a pampa cat, a brown deer, a red deer and a yellow deer.

Since the discovery of the coronavirus in December 2019, scientists have been concerned about its ability to transmit between different species, particularly from humans to previously uninfected animal species.

Not only does this threaten newly infected species, but it also gives the virus an opportunity to form natural reservoirs from which it can evolve and cause future disease outbreaks.

Disease control in zoo animals is essential because of the animals’ contact with humans and their close quarters with other animals, and also because many of them participate in important conservation programs aimed at helping to save their species.

For example, western lowland gorillas are critically endangered, and records from the World Organization for Animal Health show that they are highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Early detection of infection in zoo animals can help researchers better understand how to prevent the spread and evolution of the virus in wild populations and their extinction.

Researchers say: The detection of different types of virus indicates viral evolution and continuous adaptation in new hosts.

These findings underscore the need for integrated public health strategies that include wildlife surveillance to reduce risks from emerging infectious diseases, the researchers concluded.

This research was published in the journal Virology.

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