Tiger catches Coronavirus from its keeper

[CruCru]

The story is here.

I must admit that my first thought was that I'm amazed that any zookeeper gets close enough to a tiger to give it CV. I could understand if it had to be sedated for something medical but it sounds like the lions have also caught it (they would be in a separate enclosure).

It sounds as though the tigers aren't too unwell (which is good, obviously).

I didn't mean to have voting.

Do we know where the tiger caught it, really and scientifically?

Well, tigers in zoos don't get to roam very much. If the zoo thinks it caught it off a keeper, they are probably right.

We know that cats and ferrets can get it. Luckily cats seem to recover quite well. My cat sort of snored last night and i had a moment of panic.

I hate to think about the experiments happening in labs, on animals at the moment.

From what I understand they have the same strain as the keeper, so assumptions have been made. They are probably correct.

Saw something on TV about it this morning and it's not been confirmed if it's actually covid19. There are lots of other coronaviruses.

My husband wondered if the keeper handled the food and passed it on that way. However, I'd be surprised if the keeper didn't wear gloves to handle meat that the tigers were going to eat - mainly because they don't want them to associate their smell with meat.

Carol?

Carol fucking Baskin!

Carol effin Baskin's fault.

Am I the only one that's thinking this is, well, a little bit odd? So, there aren't enough tests for humans, but a tiger has been tested?

F’ing Carole

@EmpressMcSchnozzle it’s a little weird yes, but the Bronx Zoo is a very prestigious and well-funded zoo, run by a conservancy organization. I have a feeling they are well connected in NYC.

If cats catch it that easily how do we know it's not in wild cats anyway.
Alternatively if it does jump species that quickly why have we not encountered it before.
There's something not quite right about this

@BigFatChuckieDoll I'm not a huge fan of zoos at the best of times (massive understatement there) but that might explain it. I do understand that New York, like Detroit and Chicago, are real bellweather locations, as it were.

Bloody hell. First lockdown, now I can't even stroke my neighbour's pet tiger any more! I can't take this.

Obviously it’s awful for the tiger but I’m also quite shocked that tigers are more likely to get tests than humans at the moment!

I hate to think about the experiments happening in labs, on animals at the moment.
I bet you don’t mind the resulting medicines that treat you and your children, though.

I’m also quite shocked that tigers are more likely to get tests than humans at the moment

It's important from a scientific point of view to know if there has been a case of transmission from humans to another species and vice versa. If transmission from another species to humans is common that is something that will need to be accounted for in the long term control of coronavirus. We could control coronavirus in domestic pets and livestock in the same way as humans (quarantine and vaccination) but you can't do that with wild animals. So if we start to see transmission from humans to other species, we need to consider if measures need to be taken to prevent coronavirus becoming endemic in wild animals, particularly if we find there is a high risk of transmission from animals to humans.

It is also important to know what species are being infected with SARS-CoV-2 because if that species is susceptible to a different coronavirus and is infected with both viruses at the same time, the two viruses can recombine to create a new virus.

I am not suggesting that is going to happen but it is possible so testing the tiger was important.

.

Apologies if this is an idiotic question but should we be isolating our cats if they can catch it and potentially spread it? There are so many cats in our area.

The virus is thought to have originally come from animals (like many diseases) so it is not a suprise that animals are testing positive - whether we have given it to them or they are giving it to us is hard to prove.

I have read that they believe in some countries the virus was transmitted from animals to humans around the same time, so it wasn't the humans bringing it to different countries it was just a coincidence that the humans in different countries were contracting it at similar times from different sources.
We also don't know how long this virus has been around for as many poorer countries wouldn't have recorded the deaths and others may have put it down to a normal flu. So these zoo animals may have had it for a while.

It's not an idiotic question, @EmptyOrchestra

There has been one study that showed transmission between cats. There is no evidence of cat to human transmission but it's not something you can test in a lab. There is no official advice.

I wouldn't worry about catching coronavirus from your cat. It would probably make sense not to let your cat out if any of your household is infected though to prevent it getting into the cat population.