the pandemic has been deadly to animals, too

the pandemic hasn’t just been damaging to humans. rilu, a snow leopard at a zoo in illinois whose image was one of several projected on new york’s empire state building in 2015 to raise awareness for endangered species, died after contracting covid-19. he had been “struggling with covid-induced pneumonia,” the miller park zoo in bloomington, ill. said in a statement posted to social media.

rilu, who was only 11, tested positive for the virus in early december after showing symptoms, huffpost reported . the zoo said three other snow leopards and a sumatran tiger who also tested positive are in good condition. snow leopards in captivity can live up to 22 years.

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a post shared by miller park zoo (@millerparkzoo)

in november, three other snow leopards died at a zoo in nebraska from complications related to covid. ranney, everest and makalu “were beloved by our entire community inside and outside of the zoo,” the lincoln children’s zoo wrote in a facebook post at the time. two sumatran tigers had also tested positive, but recovered.

very few animals can transmit the virus to humans, but humans can transmit covid to animals , the u.s. center for disease control and prevention says.

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a post shared by joel sartore- photo ark (@joelsartore)

there are other animals who have also contracted covid either in their natural habitats or in experiments, according to health canada , including rabbits, bats, voles, hamsters and several kinds of rodents. a few pigs and cows were infected during experiments, but very rarely.

but unlike those other animals, minks, for some reason, are able to spread covid to people. in late 2020, officials in denmark said they believed that after mink farmers had unknowingly transmitted the virus to minks, the virus then mutated and was transmitted to other humans.

minks are a “good match” for the virus, ontario veterinary college professor scott weese told nbc news . “we have viruses that are just human viruses or dog viruses or cat viruses,” he explained. “this virus attaches well to mink.”

in denmark, where outbreaks were reported at over 200 mink farms, the threat of a mutated mink-to-human virus was so significant that the government ordered a cull of every mink in the country, sick or not. after 17 million minks were killed and buried, a gas emitted by their decomposing bodies pushed the dead minks up from their two-metre deep graves , and back up to ground level.

the veterinary pharmaceutical company zoetis, meanwhile, has developed an experimental covid vaccine for animals , which was first tested on mink. over the summer it donated 11,000 doses to about 70 american zoos and wildlife sanctuaries. in late november, the ottawa citizen reported that zoetis would also donate 900 doses to six zoos in canada.

nathalie santerre, director of parc safari in hemmingford, que., said that whenever she got access to the animal vaccine, she planned to start the vaccines with the felines and hyenas.

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the pandemic has been deadly to animals, too

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