Unvaccinated snow leopard at San Diego Zoo catches COVID-19

SAN DIEGO (AP) — An unvaccinated snowfall leopard astatine the San Diego Zoo has contracted COVID-19.

Caretakers noticed that Ramil, a 9-year-old antheral snowfall leopard, had a cough and runny chemoreceptor connected Thursday. Later, 2 abstracted tests of his stool confirmed the beingness of the coronavirus, the zoo said successful a connection Friday.

Ramil is not showing further symptoms, the zoo said, but due to the fact that helium shares an enclosure with a pistillate snowfall leopard and 2 Amur leopards, the unit assumes they person been exposed. As a result, the animals were quarantined and their grounds was closed.

It’s unclear however Ramil got infected.

In January, a unit of 8 gorillas astatine the zoo’s sister facility, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, contracted COVID-19 from a keeper who had the microorganism but showed nary symptoms.

The gorilla troop, which has since recovered, became the archetypal known illustration of the microorganism infecting apes.

The lawsuit prompted the zoo to petition an experimental COVID-19 vaccine for animals for exigency use. The vaccine from Zoetis, carnal wellness institution that was erstwhile portion of Pfizer, was administered to taxon astir astatine hazard of contracting COVID-19, including respective primates and large cats.

However, Ramil had not been vaccinated earlier his infection.

There is nary vaccine mandate for the staff, but unvaccinated employees are required to deterioration masks astatine each times, the zoo said.