Afour-year-old tiger named Nadia at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for Covid-19, the Wildlife Conservation Society announced earlier this week. New York City has been one of the hardest hit areas in the US by Covid-19.

This female Malayan tiger, along with six other big cats — including Nadia’s sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions — had all come down with a dry cough. Though these other cats weren’t tested, the zoo is assuming they were also infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, due to their symptoms.

“We tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about Covid-19 will contribute to the world’s continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus,” the WCS, which operates the zoo, said in a statement.

A zoo caretaker with Covid-19 likely infected the cats before he or she developed any symptoms of the disease. Preventive measures have been put into place for staff in order to prevent further exposure to the cats, the WCS said.

Though the infected cats have shown a decrease in appetite, they otherwise are doing well. Vets at the zoo are currently caring for, and monitoring, the sick cats. All are expected to recover, the statement by WCS said.

Domestic cats have been reportedly infected with Covid-19 by their owners. Cats seem to have a receptor protein on the outsides of respiratory cells that is similar to the human counterpart involved in SARS-CoV-2 infections. Called ACE2, this receptor protein is what allows the virus to break into these cells and multiply.

Two recent studies published online in the preprint journal medrXiv report that out of 102 cats tested in Wuhan, nearly 15% had antibodies to the virus, suggesting they can contract the virus from humans or other cats. No evidence has been found that cats can transmit the virus to humans, the authors of the study noted.

These studies don’t indicate whether big cats, like lions and tigers, have a similar receptor protein to domestic cats

The WCS’s Bronx Zoo, Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and New York Aquarium have all been closed since March 16, the WCS said.

Source: https://www.livescience.com/

Published in Dawn, Young World, April 11th, 2020