No one’s safe until we are all safe. And that includes our animals. Sunday mid-day looks at the latest efforts by zoos, national parks and animal pharma firms in India and outside, to test, isolate and vaccinate wildlife and pets
Three gorillas at San Diego Zoo, six bonobos and three orangutans were given the COVID-19 vaccine after a January 2021 infection at its safari park affected eight western lowland gorillas, the world’s first non-human primates to test positive
At Hyderabad’s sprawling Nehru Zoological Park, Saina and Bahubali, two of the eight Asiatic lions who tested positive for the SARS CoV-2 virus last month, are slowly returning to their former perky selves. “We are once again seeing glimpses of their everyday personalities. All eight are, in fact, doing much better,” says Siddhanand Kukrety, zoo director and curator. Not very different from humans infected with the virus, the big cats too had lost their appetite and were dull and lethargic. It was in late April, when the zookeepers noticed a nasal discharge in the lions housed in the Lion Safari Enclosures. The samples were sent to the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad. It was a nervous time because this became only the second zoo in the world in 2020 after New York’s Bronx Zoo, to have its animals test positive for the virus. The Wildlife Conservation Society that runs the NYC facility said in a statement that a four-year-old Malayan tiger named Nadia along with her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions all developed dry cough.
A bio-security bubble has been created for the animals, especially tigers and leopards, at Borivli’s Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with only zoo keepers allowed in. Camera traps help authorities monitor their behaviour. So far, they say, no animal has exhibited symptoms. Pics/Getty Images
With the scientific world in a better position after a year of living with the pandemic to negotiate it, veterinarians and zoo staff the world over are considering giving a vaccine to animals that may be susceptible to the infection. Russia, in fact, has rolled out what it calls the world’s first animal-specific jab, Carnivac-Cov, after trials showed that it generates antibodies in dogs, cats, foxes and mink. Six bonobos, four orangutans, and three gorillas at San Diego Zoo have also got the jab. Among them is Karen, the first orangutan to have had an open heart surgery in 1994.
Bahubali
In India, the Bareilly-based Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) is working to develop a vaccine, diagnostic kits and other tools to study the transmission dynamics of the Coronavirus in domestic pets and wild animals. “Trials and projects are on, but the results will be out in two years’ time. Thankfully, the situation among animals is not alarming at this point. The big cats that got infected had mild respiratory symptoms, but they recovered well with treatment,” says Dr KP Singh, acting joint director, Centre for Animal Disease Research and Diagnosis (CADRAD), ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute. “We already have a vaccine for the Coronavirus that’s found in poultry.” The first Coronavirus ever discovered, back in the 1930s, was the avian Coronavirus known as Infectious Bronchitis Virus, or IBV. It is said to be the most infectious agent in hens.
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Saina were two of the eight lions who contracted Covid-19 last month. Siddhanand Kukrety, zoo and curator at Hyderabad’s Nehru Zoological Park, says the big cats are doing much better now
The Covid-19 vaccine that the San Diego Zoo used on its apes was produced by New Jersey-based Zoetis, the world’s leading animal health company. Vaccines are among the products they develop for eight core species of animals: cattle, pig, poultry, sheep, fish, horse, cat and dog. According to Mahesh Kumar, senior vice president of global biologics at Zoetis, all vaccines developed for Covid-19 are not the same, including those administered to humans. “They use different technologies. However, all [vaccines] aim to induce an immune response against the virus. In our vaccine for animals, the vaccine antigen [the part that induces an immune response] is of the spike trimer combined with an adjuvant [an added carrier that boosts the immune response]. The adjuvant is the key differentiator in vaccines among the different species. While the antigen can be the same, the adjuvants are species-specific from a safety and efficacy standpoint.” Zoetis has a long history of developing vaccines for other viruses from the Coronavirus family, for dogs, cats and farm animals, which is how Kumar explains, they were able to build on past experience when they started development activities for a new vaccine in February 2020, based on initial concerns about SARS-CoV-2 in domestic animals. “Thankfully, the disease has not become a significant issue in cats and dogs. However, our development work shifted to minks last year as they have been shown to be susceptible, and also a potential source of transmitting variant strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus back to humans. Our goal in providing a vaccine for minks is to support what we call a “One Health” approach by helping protect them from the virus, which in turn helps protect human health.”
A tiger is seen having a quiet moment at SGNP. Dr Shailesh Pethe, veterinary officer for SGNP, says a bio security bubble has been created for the wild animals at the park. “So far, we have no reports of any animals showing unusual symptoms or ill-health. All are healthy and eating well. Maximum care for personal hygiene, sanitation and biosecurity measures are being taken.” Pic/Nimesh Dave
Globally, besides the mink, the infection has been confirmed in dogs, domestic cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, cougars and ferrets. Two canines in Hong Kong —a Pomeranian and a German shepherd—were reported to be the first domestic pets to contract the virus. Subsequently, other pets tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, including a cat in Hong Kong and another two in New York state. “Because many zoos are a point of contact between animals and humans, there is the potential of humans passing on the virus to the animals and vice versa. While the probability of these transmissions is low, it may be of concern,” says Kumar.
Karthikeyan Vasudevan, senior principal scientist at CCMB
During animal vaccine trials, they first test the safety of the vaccine, followed by its efficacy or degree of ability to fight the virus attack. “In this case, we vaccinate the animal and monitor its antibody response to see if there is a reasonable expectation of efficacy. Laws and regulations require us to study the species in question. We conduct many studies in vitro and then move on to host animals for pivotal safety and efficacy studies.”