Tiger with COVID-19 gets meds, TLC from New York's Bronx Zoo keepers

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Tiger with COVID-19 gets meds, TLC from New York's Bronx Zoo keepers

By Angela Moore

 

FILE PHOTO: An ambulance goes inside of the Bronx Zoo as the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues in the Bronx borough of New York City, New York, U.S., April 5, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nadia, the tiger who tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New York, and six other big cats who developed a dry cough at the Bronx Zoo appeared to be on the mend on Monday after doses of medication and tenderness.

 

"A little TLC by the keepers taking care of them, some anti-inflammatory medications," Paul Calle, chief veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, said in describing to Reuters the regimen that was helping them to improve on a daily basis.

 

Some of the four tigers and three lions got antibiotics. All had "mild" illness and were expected to fully recover, he said.

 

That includes Nadia, a 4-year-old Malayan tiger who stopped eating and was the only one tested because the zoo did not want to subject all the cats to anesthesia, Calle said. Swabs of her nose and throat and tracheal fluid from her lungs were sent to veterinary schools at Cornell University and the University of Illinois, which conducted animal COVID testing, which does not use the scarce resources for the human testing that is in demand nationwide, he said.

 

"There isn't a competition between testing for people and animals," Calle said.

 

Calle told reporters on Sunday that Nadia was the first known case of a human infecting an animal and making it sick with COVID-19.

 

The virus that causes COVID-19 is believed to have spread from animals to humans, and a handful of animals have tested positive in Hong Kong.

 

But officials believe this is a unique case because Nadia became sick after exposure to an asymptomatic zoo employee. Calle said the zoo did not know which employee infected the tiger.

 

"There have been some test results in dogs and cats, but they were either healthy or it wasn't clear that COVID was the cause of the illness," Calle said.

 

The first tiger at the zoo, which has been shut since mid-March, began showing signs of illness on March 27, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Veterinary Services Laboratories, which performed the test.

 

(Writing by Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Sandra Maler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-04-07

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[Tug]

You can give the big kitty all the tlc ya want I’m not volunteering hope she makes a full and speedy recovery nice kitty kitty yeiks!!

Edited April 6, 2020 by Tug

[meechai]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/05/us/tiger-coronavirus-new-york-trnd/index.html

 

From zookeeper really? There is now more of them sick too.

I believe it is 6 tigers & 1 Lion now

 

Also here they keep harping on the "Animals cannot give humans covid"

Yet do they really know?

 

We were originally told a Bat gave it to a human at the start <sic>

Well if true then an animal did pass it albeit the human ate it but...Probably not raw eh?

So...Then heat also does not kill it?

 

All I am saying here is one thing we know for sure about this whole Covid deal is...

We Don't Know Anything

Edited April 7, 2020 by meechai

[Das Boot]

2 hours ago, meechai said:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/05/us/tiger-coronavirus-new-york-trnd/index.html

 

From zookeeper really? There is now more of them sick too.

I believe it is 6 tigers & 1 Lion now

 

Also here they keep harping on the "Animals cannot give humans covid"

Yet do they really know?

 

We were originally told a Bat gave it to a human at the start <sic>

Well if true then an animal did pass it albeit the human ate it but...Probably not raw eh?

So...Then heat also does not kill it?

 

All I am saying here is one thing we know for sure about this whole Covid deal is...

We Don't Know Anything

If it came from animals as previously stated and passed to humans. Logically  I would have thought it likely it could be passed back to animals.  Although I admit I don't know the intricacies of the transmission.  I do know you don't need to eat an infected animal to catch it, handling an infected bat would do it.  This is a worrying development.  How many animals out there have it already?