You may have heard about dogs and cats testing positive for coronavirus, but they aren’t the only animal that can get the disease. Our close primate cousins are also vulnerable, and so when several Gorillas at the San Diego zoo tested positive earlier this year and exhibited symptoms, animal caretakers at that zoo and pushed to do something. That is: it was time to vaccinate the great apes at the famous zoo.
Now, these animals, though they are close to humans, didn’t get a human vaccine. This was a vaccine created for animals specifically, though it does work similarly to other COVID vaccines on the market.
Veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo worked with the company Zoetis, which had developed an experimental vaccine for animals. Zoetis, an animal health company that once was a division of Pfizer, had already given the vaccine to minks, cats, and dogs. When the San Diego Zoo made their request, they had about 27 doses left, and so yesterday (Thursday, March 4th) the experimental vaccine was administered to four orangutans and five bonobos. Soon, three more bonobos and a gorilla will get the shot as well.
“We wanted to do our best to protect them from this virus because we don’t really know how it’s going to impact them,” Nadine Lamberski, chief conservation and wildlife health officer for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance to the San Diego Union-Tribune. And it makes sense for Zoos to do everything in their power to protect these precious animals, especially members of threatened or endangered species.
Elsewhere there is also talk of vaccinating other non-human primates, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo where many threatened gorillas reside. However, the priority is vaccinating the humans in the surrounding area first.
(via The Guardian, image: Pexels)
Here are some other great things we saw this fine Friday.
- Supergirl will return for its 6th and final season on March 30. (via EW).
- Country star Brooke Eden was told to say in the closet, but no more. (via The Washington Post)
- More set photos from Thor: Love and Thunder have us even more excited. (via Comicbook.com)
- More news from Mars!.
We’re rolling: the @NASAPersevere rover has made its first drive on Mars, and its landing site has been named in honor of groundbreaking science fiction author @OctaviaEButler. More: https://t.co/LDw7UX2Ccg pic.twitter.com/OUhQw3MLUF
— NASA Mars (@NASAMars) March 5, 2021
- Archeologists have discovered a trove of 2000-year-old terra cotta figures in Turkey. (via Smithsonian Magazine)
- Red Eric Swalwell has sued Trump and his allies over the Capitol riot. (via CNN)
- “China Town Pretty” celebrates some fantastic, fashionable Asian elders. (via NPR)
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NOW STREAMING on @Hulu: “Stop the Hate,” an @ABCNewsLive special, anchored by @JuJuChangABC and @EvaPilgrim, focused on hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander community and rising activism in response. https://t.co/EvZhYQVhjv pic.twitter.com/jmKPkIALgs
— ABC News (@ABC) March 5, 2021
Have a safe weekend, Suvians!
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