[Article/Guancha.com Ju Feng] The coronavirus epidemic in the United States is still raging, and even gorillas are not immune.
San Diego Zoo in California issued a public statement on January 11 that several gorillas in Safari Park tested positive for the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
This is the first case of COVID-19 in non-human primates in the world; the garden said that gorillas may be infected by asymptomatic infected people in the staff. San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Park are closed.
Gorillas are endangered.
The confirmed gorillas are rare western lowland gorillas, and their number has decreased by 60% in the past 20 years.
The statement said that on January 6, two gorillas developed cough symptoms, and the park began to test their fecal samples for the virus.
On January 8, preliminary test results showed that there was a (coronavirus) virus in the gorilla population.
Three days later (11th), the National Veterinary Service Laboratory (NVSL) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that the gorillas tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
On the same day, California Governor Gavin Newsom confirmed at a press conference that “two gorillas at San Diego Wildlife Park tested positive for COVID-19 and one more showed symptoms.”
Newsom said that according to the information he heard, this may be the first case of the world’s “human-to-human animal transmission” of the novel coronavirus.
According to the Associated Press, so far, at least eight of the gorillas have been diagnosed.
“Aside from nasal congestion and cough, gorillas are in good health,” said Lisa Peterson, executive director of San Diego Wildlife Park.
“The group of gorillas are now in collective isolation and eat and drink normally.
We hope they will recover completely.
In a statement, the zoo said that it was suspected that it was the zoo’s wildlife care team that transmitted the virus to gorillas.
Previously, asymptomatic infections appeared in the team.
NBC reported that research shows that non-human primates may also be infected with the novel coronavirus, but this is the first case in the world that the novel coronavirus naturally spreads to apes.
Whether orangutans will have a serious reaction is unknown.
Wildlife experts expressed concern about the infection of the gorilla group.
According to National Geographic on January 11, the gorillas infected at San Diego Safari Park are western lowland gorillas, and their number has decreased by more than 60% in the past 20 years due to disease and human hunting.
According to the statistics of Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 6:22 Beijing time on January 12, 2021, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States was 2,255,929, and the total number of COVID-19 deaths reached 375,576. In the past 24 hours, there have been 17,089 new confirmed cases and 1,779 new deaths in the United States.
