A tiger has tested positive for the coronavirus at the Bronx Zoo, according to a test conducted by the USDA's National Veterinary Services Laboratory. The tiger, a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia her sister Azul, along with three lions all developed coughs, but are expected to survive.
Reports of animals catching COVID-19 are not new, as cats and dogs have both been reported to be susceptible to the virus, but a tiger is a first.
A 4-year-old female tiger at @BronxZoo named Nadia has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the @TheWCS. pic.twitter.com/nLJwlHFNIO
— Clayton Sandell (@Clayton_Sandell) April 5, 2020
The tigers were only tested because of the care takers in charge of their care had started to develop symptoms, as did the tigers and so the zoo thought it pragmatic enough to know for certain. Which is interesting that tigers can get tests when. some people can't.
"Our cats were infected by a person caring for them who was asymptomatically infected with the virus or before that person developed symptoms."
— graham starr (@GrahamStarr) April 5, 2020
Believed human-to-animal transmission of COVID-19 at the Bronx Zoo. https://t.co/uB4hpNDpH4
Nadia was tested by USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory "out of an abundance of caution," according to a press release from the zoo
— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) April 5, 2020
The news is shitty to say the least, and as of now it seems humans are the ones infecting animals and not the other way around. Still this news is only bad, no one wants their cats and dogs getting coronavirus, but I'd be damned if I didn't say that the hinges on the simulation are beginning to come apart.
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