San Diego Zoo Provides Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine For Great Apes

Orangutan (Wikimedia Commons/Brett Jordan)

JAKARTA - Nine great apes at the San Diego Zoo, United States, Orangutans, and bonobos, have been given an experimental COVID-19 vaccine designed for animals after an outbreak among gorillas has occurred there.

Four orangutans and five bonobos are each given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine made by Zoetis, an animal pharmaceutical company.

The provision of this experimental vaccine departed from the concerns of conservationists regarding the threat of COVID-19 for great apes.

It is known that eight gorillas at the San Diego zoo became the first great apes in the world to test positive for COVID-19 in January. They are now recovering.

They are especially concerned about the danger to gorillas, which have a population listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

"This is not the norm", Nadine Lamberski, chief conservation officer at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, told National Geographic.

"In my career, I didn't have access to experimental vaccines early in the process and didn't have a strong desire to use them", she continued.

Bonobo. (Wikimedia Commons)

Karen, the world's first orangutan to undergo open-heart surgery in 1994, was among the great apes to receive the vaccine.

Lamberski said the monkeys did not suffer any adverse reactions and would soon be tested for antibodies to determine if the injection was successful.

Cases of the virus have also been found in animals at other zoos, including lions and tigers at the Bronx Zoo in New York. As well as the lion at the Barcelona Zoo in Spain.

The COVID-19 infection has been confirmed in a variety of animals around the world, from dogs and cats to ferrets and stoats. However, cases are usually very rare.

Zoetis began developing a COVID-19 vaccine for cats and dogs in February last year after a dog tested positive for the virus in Hong Kong.

The vaccine was deemed safe and effective in cats and dogs in October last year. As of February this year, the vaccine had not been tested on other animals.

Lamberski added that vaccinating great apes in zoos is worth the risk.

"We usually use vaccines designed for dogs and cats for lions and tigers", Lamberski said.