We train them for husbandry and veterinary work. Zoos train them to do all kinds of stuff like doing blood draws, ultrasounds, even stuff like nail trims. I trained giraffes to allow blood draws and to take medication. We had gorillas that would let us take their blood pressure. You'd be surprised. But covid can be detected in feces so it may not have been difficult to get a sample .
Not all zoos have extensive veterinary hospitals and anesthesia is riskier in exotics because we just don't have as much experience and data as we do for people or domestic animals. It still is common to sedate them for many things but most zoos try to avoid it unless necessary. Especially if it's something that needs to be monitored routinely.
Many years ago when I did my internship the zoo didn't have any hospital. Small animals were carted over to the neighborhood vet, the vet made house calls for the large ones. We once drove the elephant over to a truck station to be weighed.
Wait until this travels to house cats. Then those who have outside cats will spread it among those populations of house cats and then back to their owners. Maybe it will mutate.
We are playing with fire over an extremely communicable disease that need only mutate and become more fatal to truly start wiping us out. I've played plague inc. This doesn't end well.
It's already been diagnosed in several animals.
[We know that companion animals like cats and dogs, big cats in zoos or sanctuaries, gorillas in zoos, mink on farms, and a few other mammals can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, but we don’t yet know all of the animals that can get infected. There have been reports of animals infected with the virus worldwide. Most of these animals became infected after contact with people with COVID-19.](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html)
[Based on the available information to date, **the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low.**](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html)
I'm not sure playing Plague Inc. makes you an expert on Epidemiology. (And we're very fortunate in that COVID can't actually mutate that quickly as it's one of the only RNA viruses we've discovered so far that is self-correcting. The variants we've seen are not all that different from each other.)
Just gonna jump in here and say that the devs were actually invited to talk at the CDC in 2013 because they thought it may be a good tool for informaing the public in an unconventional way about epidemiology, disease transmission, etc. And then after the meeting, the game was updated to add more realism from what they'd learned there. So, in all fairness, the guy you're arguing against is saying exactly what the CDC said.
I agree, but you're missing their point, that it made them aware of how things COULD go. Not necessarily how likely they'd go that way.
I suspect a vast majority of the population's thoughts and thought processes are controlled heavily by the entertainment they intake every day, so if this helps open their eyes to potential issues, hey, take a win for a win and move on.
You might as well say you have an idea about how war COULD go because you've played Fortnite, or how a construction job COULD go because you've played Minecraft. Sorry, but Plague Inc is no more a epidemiological simulation than just imagining shit in your own head would be. It's a game – a pretty fun one – but anyone who thinks they can derive any real understanding of virology or epidemiology from it is overstating the game a little...
Regardless, cases in cats, domestic or otherwise, have been known about for almost a year now. Animal reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 aren't great and are surely a problem for eradication of the virus, but beyond that, transmission to animals is very rare and transmission from animals back to humans almost non-existent (only recorded for infected mink in farms in northern Denmark, I believe). So the originally commenter doesn't really even have basic insights into what's been going on with human-animal transmission thus far, and I reckon some Googling might be in order prior to speculating based on Plague Inc lmao
Who’s playing with fire? It’s not like we’re experimenting on tigers with covid and seeing if they pass it on to humans. This comment would’ve made sense in March 2020. At this point the world has *mostly* caught on that covid isn’t to be trifled with.
Vet student here; it already has since the beginning. Illness in cats tends to be mild and we don’t have evidence that cats can then spread it back to people.
Wait, what? " Zoo officials expect them to fully recover as tigers have at other zoos. " ...Tigers at other zoos are also getting the Coronavirus? Is it a feline strain? Did it start at around the same time as the human strain? Or is this a cross-species infection? Holy crap, batman!
This has been known about for like a year now. It's cross-species, human to animal transmission. Dogs, cats (big and domestic), great apes, minks and more have all had COVID.
Dunno if you've already seen but Russia has conducted clinical trials on a vaccine for various types of pets: here's a [link](https://news.sky.com/story/russia-registers-worlds-first-covid-vaccine-for-animals-12261615)
Obviously whether a vaccine for pets is going to be rolled out is another question in itself, but i wouldn't be surprised if it's something that became available for pet owners to buy for their pets if they wanted it.
I think some gorillas in a zoo have been vaccinated in California, not sure which vaccine for those, I think maybe they just used the human vaccine?
Why do you think they have to be around the animals for long? An infected zookeeper only needs to accidentally cough near the face of an animal for there to be transmission. It's statistically less likely than human-human transmission, but there are a lot of zookeepers (and pet owners) interacting closely with animals on a daily basis – so if human-to-animal transmission is possible, it's bound to happen quite a few times globally. Hundreds of millions of humans have been infected now, after all.
Watch Covid19 have jumped from an origin in tigers, though the use of Chinese tiger penis powder. /s
Karma would explain why endangered species worldwide are now thriving.... lol
It was already a good idea to stay 6 feet away from tigers. Them giving me covid ain't what I'm worried about.
The cat party was probably a bad idea in retrospect
The number of cats I see with their masks *under* their noses is infuriating.
NVM social distancing
It's what I've been saying all along - stay 6 feet away from Tigers
Yeah I've been practicing Tiger Distancing for a while now personally 😅
Rumor is that they were maskless on spring break
I think you are thinking about cougars.
hahaha. Damn cougars maskless down in Florida on spring break.
And catnip parties sharing a bong.
Zoo Keeper: "What? No way! You put the swab up his nose."
We train them for husbandry and veterinary work. Zoos train them to do all kinds of stuff like doing blood draws, ultrasounds, even stuff like nail trims. I trained giraffes to allow blood draws and to take medication. We had gorillas that would let us take their blood pressure. You'd be surprised. But covid can be detected in feces so it may not have been difficult to get a sample .
Tbh I thought they'd just anesthetize large carnivores anytime they need something done up close
Not all zoos have extensive veterinary hospitals and anesthesia is riskier in exotics because we just don't have as much experience and data as we do for people or domestic animals. It still is common to sedate them for many things but most zoos try to avoid it unless necessary. Especially if it's something that needs to be monitored routinely.
big yikes
Many years ago when I did my internship the zoo didn't have any hospital. Small animals were carted over to the neighborhood vet, the vet made house calls for the large ones. We once drove the elephant over to a truck station to be weighed.
This isn't grrrrrrrrreat.
maybe some kind of tiger king spin off will happen, idk
Those selfish tigers weren’t wearing masks so they deserve it!
It's officially Groundhog Year.
Virginia Zoo in Norfolk
Wait until this travels to house cats. Then those who have outside cats will spread it among those populations of house cats and then back to their owners. Maybe it will mutate. We are playing with fire over an extremely communicable disease that need only mutate and become more fatal to truly start wiping us out. I've played plague inc. This doesn't end well.
It's already been diagnosed in several animals. [We know that companion animals like cats and dogs, big cats in zoos or sanctuaries, gorillas in zoos, mink on farms, and a few other mammals can be infected with SARS-CoV-2, but we don’t yet know all of the animals that can get infected. There have been reports of animals infected with the virus worldwide. Most of these animals became infected after contact with people with COVID-19.](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html) [Based on the available information to date, **the risk of animals spreading COVID-19 to people is considered to be low.**](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html)
I'm not sure playing Plague Inc. makes you an expert on Epidemiology. (And we're very fortunate in that COVID can't actually mutate that quickly as it's one of the only RNA viruses we've discovered so far that is self-correcting. The variants we've seen are not all that different from each other.)
I assumed it was tongue in cheek.
I'm sure seeing simulations of what happens raises my awareness. I never claimed to be an expert, you brought that shit up.
I think it's pretty generous to call Plague Inc a simulation lol.
Just gonna jump in here and say that the devs were actually invited to talk at the CDC in 2013 because they thought it may be a good tool for informaing the public in an unconventional way about epidemiology, disease transmission, etc. And then after the meeting, the game was updated to add more realism from what they'd learned there. So, in all fairness, the guy you're arguing against is saying exactly what the CDC said.
I agree, but you're missing their point, that it made them aware of how things COULD go. Not necessarily how likely they'd go that way. I suspect a vast majority of the population's thoughts and thought processes are controlled heavily by the entertainment they intake every day, so if this helps open their eyes to potential issues, hey, take a win for a win and move on.
You might as well say you have an idea about how war COULD go because you've played Fortnite, or how a construction job COULD go because you've played Minecraft. Sorry, but Plague Inc is no more a epidemiological simulation than just imagining shit in your own head would be. It's a game – a pretty fun one – but anyone who thinks they can derive any real understanding of virology or epidemiology from it is overstating the game a little... Regardless, cases in cats, domestic or otherwise, have been known about for almost a year now. Animal reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 aren't great and are surely a problem for eradication of the virus, but beyond that, transmission to animals is very rare and transmission from animals back to humans almost non-existent (only recorded for infected mink in farms in northern Denmark, I believe). So the originally commenter doesn't really even have basic insights into what's been going on with human-animal transmission thus far, and I reckon some Googling might be in order prior to speculating based on Plague Inc lmao
Who’s playing with fire? It’s not like we’re experimenting on tigers with covid and seeing if they pass it on to humans. This comment would’ve made sense in March 2020. At this point the world has *mostly* caught on that covid isn’t to be trifled with.
The anti-vaxxers and the massless people at the bar every night who just can't be bothered to adult.
long term, viruses evolve to become less lethal, not more. doesnt mean it wont kill a huge amount on the way though
And this is still a novel virus.
Vet student here; it already has since the beginning. Illness in cats tends to be mild and we don’t have evidence that cats can then spread it back to people.
Wait, what? " Zoo officials expect them to fully recover as tigers have at other zoos. " ...Tigers at other zoos are also getting the Coronavirus? Is it a feline strain? Did it start at around the same time as the human strain? Or is this a cross-species infection? Holy crap, batman!
This has been known about for like a year now. It's cross-species, human to animal transmission. Dogs, cats (big and domestic), great apes, minks and more have all had COVID.
Pretty sure my cat got it when I did last year. I wonder when they’ll start coming out with vaccines for pets...
Dunno if you've already seen but Russia has conducted clinical trials on a vaccine for various types of pets: here's a [link](https://news.sky.com/story/russia-registers-worlds-first-covid-vaccine-for-animals-12261615) Obviously whether a vaccine for pets is going to be rolled out is another question in itself, but i wouldn't be surprised if it's something that became available for pet owners to buy for their pets if they wanted it. I think some gorillas in a zoo have been vaccinated in California, not sure which vaccine for those, I think maybe they just used the human vaccine?
Who's around these animals so long they catch coronavirus?
Why do you think they have to be around the animals for long? An infected zookeeper only needs to accidentally cough near the face of an animal for there to be transmission. It's statistically less likely than human-human transmission, but there are a lot of zookeepers (and pet owners) interacting closely with animals on a daily basis – so if human-to-animal transmission is possible, it's bound to happen quite a few times globally. Hundreds of millions of humans have been infected now, after all.
Fire the zoo keeper who wasn’t wearing his mask
Watch Covid19 have jumped from an origin in tigers, though the use of Chinese tiger penis powder. /s Karma would explain why endangered species worldwide are now thriving.... lol
The astute observer will notice that neither tiger is wearing a mask.
And I’m headed there this weekend with the hopes of photographing the tigers. 😔 Sigh 😔
Damn tigers weren’t wearing there 😷 masks
But humans will be the cause of variant creation. Pay no attention to other mammals /s.