• Great apes at the San Diego Zoo are the first non-humans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of an experiment.
• The news comes after a gorilla troop at the zoo tested positive for COVID-19 in January.
• Researchers are hoping to better understand the coronavirus and its effects on apes in the wild.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Several great apes at the San Diego Zoo were given experimental Covid-19vaccines for animals Wednesday morning, becoming the first known non-humanprimates to receive a vaccine in the US outside of an experiment.

Back in January, eight gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park testedpositive for COVID-19. Global Conservation and Wildlife Health Officer NadineLamberski told Insider in an interview that the “alarm bells” first went offwhen the zoo’s 49-year-old silverback gorilla named Winston started coughing afew days after finding out one of their wildlife care specialists hadCovid-19.

“As soon as we knew that an employee was positive, we were on high alert, sojust that one or two coughs really sent the alarm bells off, and weimmediately started to get the permissions necessary to submit samples fordiagnostic testing,” Lamberski said.

With fewer than 5,000 gorillas left in the wild, researchers have expressedconcern that, because apes live in close family groups, a coronavirusinfection could spread quickly if just one ape caught the virus. San Diego ZooWildlife Alliance

• Great apes at the San Diego Zoo are the first non-humans to receive a COVID-19 vaccine outside of an experiment.
• The news comes after a gorilla troop at the zoo tested positive for COVID-19 in January.
• Researchers are hoping to better understand the coronavirus and its effects on apes in the wild.
• Visit the Business section of Insider for more stories.

Several great apes at the San Diego Zoo were given experimental Covid-19vaccines for animals Wednesday morning, becoming the first known non-humanprimates to receive a vaccine in the US outside of an experiment.

Back in January, eight gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park testedpositive for COVID-19. Global Conservation and Wildlife Health Officer NadineLamberski told Insider in an interview that the “alarm bells” first went offwhen the zoo’s 49-year-old silverback gorilla named Winston started coughing afew days after finding out one of their wildlife care specialists hadCovid-19.

“As soon as we knew that an employee was positive, we were on high alert, sojust that one or two coughs really sent the alarm bells off, and weimmediately started to get the permissions necessary to submit samples fordiagnostic testing,” Lamberski said.

“We really had to divide and conquer it, and everybody had a different role,”she said. “We had our wildlife care specialists trying to figure out, youknow, if we could separate the animals, and what if one animal was severelyill and had to have intensive care? Was that even possible?”

“So again, we had a lot of people doing a lot of things simultaneously becausewe wanted to be prepared for any outcome,” she continued. “You know, we werehoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”

The gorillas had made a full recovery by mid-February, and Lamberski said sheworked on trying to obtain vaccines to prevent further infection in thegorilla troop and other apes at the zoo.

Veterinary pharmaceutical company Zoetis developed the experimental vaccine,National Geographic reported, which is not built nor suitable for human use.

In total, nine great apes – four orangutans and five bonobos – wereadministered the vaccine, including an orangutan named Karen, who was thefirst ape in the world to have open-heart surgery in 1994.

All three of the US vaccines – Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – weretested in monkeys, but the experimental vaccines given to the gorilla troop atthe San Diego Zoo marked the first time a COVID-19 vaccine was administeredoutside of an experiment.

With fewer than 5,000 gorillas left in the wild, researchers have expressedconcern that, because apes live in close family groups, the infection couldspread quickly if just one ape caught the virus.

Little is currently known about the effect the coronavirus has on animals,though various animals, including cats and dogs, have tested positive for thevirus in the past.

While zoo staff can take some comfort in knowing their gorillas arevaccinated, Lamberski thinks “that big sigh of relief isn’t going to comeuntil our entire community is vaccinated, until the vaccine gets to, you know,remote communities all over the world, to areas where gorillas live in thewild.”

Paul Baribault, CEO and President of the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, toldInsider he hopes the pandemic will help people realize the interconnectednessthat humans have with nature.

“As we move forward out of COVID, I think we certainly hope that the world hasa greater understanding of our interdependency, that we are dependent on thehealth of nature,” he said. “We are dependent on the health of wildlife. Ourhealth is tied to all of it.”

Source: Yahoo News

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