Tiger tests positive

[HuntIdeas]

A tiger in New York zoo has tested positive for Coronavirus and 6 other big cats are showing symptoms - www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-52177586

What will happen if pet cats start catching / transmitting the virus? Will we have to lock them in / out of the house?

[Danceswithwarthogs]

(Then dogs couldn’t go anyway)

[Tonyaster]

I wouldn't mind people being told they need to keep their dogs on leads though. I'm normally an off lead dog walker but mine are pn the lead now. The amount that aren't whose owners think its fine that they run over and jump up is really annoying me.

[turnthebiglightoff]

Tiger.....,,people.......rabbits...... ok

[VivaLeBeaver]

The thing which suprises me the most is that a keeper got within 2 m of the tiger, close enough to infect it. Because we’re all told if you stay 2m away you’re ok. Because I don’t think tigers go round touching contaminated shop doors or light switches.

Of course if it’s airborne then it could spread at a further distance.

[Danceswithwarthogs]

Tonyaster - me too, apart from when we walk early/late on farmland when no one around. Our usual dog walks are now rammed with people (quite legitimately) wanting to exercise, particularly mountain bikers darting out of the trees and freaking her out.

[Kazzyhoward]

If animals can get it, perhaps it will force dog owners to be more responsible and put their dogs on a lead rather than let them run around, potentially infecting other people.

[Danceswithwarthogs]

Viva, I wondered that too

[ChrissieKeller61]

Well that's one they can't pin on Carole Baskin

[TiddyTid]

Viva I think it was via the tigers food preparation? Could be wrong though

[LockedInMadness]

There is absolutely no evidence that we can get coronavirus from pets.

^this

[Spidey66]

I clicked on this thinking Tiger Woods had tested positive.

I'll get my coat.

[Xiaoxiong]

My knee-jerk reaction was - we don't have enough tests to test NHS frontline staff, and they've got enough that they can use their tests on tigers at the zoo?! But maybe testing animals uses different chemicals or something so it's not a trade-off.

[Dyrne]

Keepers can get quite close to tigers - they’ll give them meds etc in little chunks of meat on sticks that they poke through the cage.

(Disclaimer - 99% of my zoo knowledge comes from watching the Secret Life of the Zoo. The other 1% is what I remember from watching Animal Park during my uni days)

[Duchessofblandings]

Tonyaster

Dogs cats and rabbits aren't the same. Possibly cats can catch it but dogs cant.“

Please download and listen to last week’s edition of Inside Science, Radio 4. Two dogs, a golden retriever and a German shepherd, tested positive for Covid-19 at the University of Hong Kong,

[Afternooninthepark]

Cats are prone to catching viruses, they get a feline form of flu and HIV. I just hope idiots don’t start abandoning their pets now this news is out.

[Danceswithwarthogs]

Especially the hoards of people inundating rescue centres because they wanted some animal company for lockdown

[nether]

Cats can also get a feline coronavirus, which is a totally different strain to COVID-19

Is it treated with retrovirals? Because it seems that doctors are trying a number of novel combinations of retroviral drugs to see if any are effective against COVID-19, and perhaps animal medicines are part of that. Or are feline retrovirals an offshoot of human ones in the first place?

[undercoveraessedai]

My two cats are antisocial twats and don't let anyone but me anywhere near them - so assume they're minimal risk. However, if my vet says at any point to keep them in I will.

[ChardonnaysPetDragon]

A tiger is a very different animal to a dog, it s different family, basically a cat, can we please not go down the dog bashing rabbit home again.

see how I squeezed four different animals in one sentence

[Floatyboat]

It is not at all clear dogs are risk free for covid transmission at the moment. Anyone walking one off the lead is being very reckless indeed.

[Danceswithwarthogs]

Feline coronavirus is an untreatable, weird disease - many cats are exposed to as kittens (most get over it without symptoms) then a minority succumb to all kinds of nasty symptoms (neurological signs, organ failure, accumulations of abdominal/pleural fluid) down the line, sometimes years later - always fatal/euthanasia unfortunately.

[Danceswithwarthogs]

But any animal can be a fomite like a door handle

[ChardonnaysPetDragon]

"There have been a handful of reports outside the US of pet dogs or cats becoming infected after close contact with contagious people, including a Hong Kong dog that tested positive for a low level of the pathogen in February and early March. Hong Kong agriculture authorities concluded that pet dogs and cats couldn’t pass the virus to human beings but could test positive if exposed by their owners."

Please don't scaremonger.

[VivaLeBeaver]

If the tiger got it from prepared food is it not more of a warning against buying takeaway food rather than avoiding cats?

[middleager]

*Cats are prone to catching viruses, they get a feline form of flu and HIV. I just hope idiots don’t start abandoning their pets now this news is out.

I lost one of mine to this. He was a fit, dapper chap and I still miss the boy.