8 big cats, including African lions, snow leopards test positive for COVID-19 in US
Days after a pet dog in the UK tested positive for COVID-19, now eight big cats in a zoo in the United States detected positive for coronavirus. Citing St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Hill reported that the infected cats include two African lions, two snow leopards, an Amur tiger, a puma and two jaguars. These animals had mild symptoms, although some had a cough and nasal discharge.
Apart from them, none of the other 12,000 animals in the St. Louis Zoo have tested positive, the local newspaper reported. Staff has not traced the source of the infection among the cats.
The zoo has been vaccinating its animals with an animal-specific vaccine for more than a month against the disease that has wreaked havoc on the global human population, the report stated.
In September, six big cats tested positive for the coronavirus at the Smithsonian National Zoo.
According to the CDC, the risk of animals spreading the coronavirus to humans is low, but people have been documented spreading the virus to animals across the world, according to the report.
(With inputs from ANI)
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