All of the National Zoo’s Lions and Tigers Have Tested Positive for Coronavirus

All of the National Zoo’s Lions and Tigers Have Tested Positive for Coronavirus(dcist.com)

15 points by porkphish 4 years ago | 9 comments

h2odragon 4 years ago |

I believe every other report of animal COVID i have seen to date went out of its way to avoid actually saying the animal had symptoms. They'd say "discovered after a vet visit" etc but fail to mention why a test had been done.

"Social distancing! masks! but ignore animal vectors" seemed weird at the start but on the other hand we'd have had panicked pet slaughters if they'd pushed for it. and may yet,

abduhl 4 years ago | |

Eradication is the goal. Vaccinate every human, kill every animal. Nothing less is acceptable against the threat that is COVID19.

Or so I’ve been told.

meepmorp 4 years ago | | |

Please stop. This is so boring and unproductive.

b0tzzzzzzman 4 years ago | | |

I thnk I'll sit this game out coach.

shusaku 4 years ago |

Without opening up too much of a covid origin can of worms… can all covid strands jump from humans to cats or are specific mutations required? And can related coronaviruses that don’t infect humans infect cats? Or are the mutations for SARS-CoV-2 good for cats and humans?

nradov 4 years ago | |

As far as we know, all SARS-CoV-2 variants can infect most mammal species. However this hasn't been studied in detail.

There is at least one other type of coronavirus which infects cats.

https://www.vet.cornell.edu/animal-health-diagnostic-center/...

DIVx0 4 years ago |

I wonder if this means domesticated cats can also carry covid? Are we going to have to worry about some sort of super mutant feline covid jumping back into humans later?

h2odragon 4 years ago | |

IIRC the first report of domestic cats testing positive for covid came from Hong Kong in March or April 2020.

In other words, we shoulda worried about it then, if we were going to. By this point the wild deer population have it. Happy "zero covid".

lithium_throw 4 years ago | |

Yes, they can. This has been known since early in the pandemic.

And I'm supposed to believe it was absolutely necessary to shut myself in my house for months, and then not allow anyone else at all in my house for further months, yet Fluffy could wander around as they pleased.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmc2013400