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How zoos persuade animals to get the coronavirus vaccine ... [link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)] › lifestyle › 2021/10/21
The Rise of COVID-19 Vaccines for Animals
Thousands of animals have had their shot already. How many more really need it?




Dec 9, 2021

SAN DIEGO ZOO
For the cheetah, getting her vaccine was no big deal. When the wildlife care specialist at San Diego Zoo Safari Park called to her, she paced over and then sat, quiet and calm, to receive her injection.

“The animal participates in this process and can walk away at any time,” explains Nadine Lamberski, head of wildlife health at the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. It’s the close relationship between wildlife specialists at San Diego and the animals they look after, she adds, that makes this gentle approach to vaccination possible.

Roughly 260 animals, of many different species, have now received an experimental COVID-19 vaccine at San Diego Zoo and Safari Park. Most animals “volunteered” like the cheetahs, says Lamberski, though some were vaccinated from afar via darts.

While SARS-CoV-2 has caused illness and millions of deaths among humans, multiple nonhuman animal species have turned out to be susceptible to it, too. This has led to the development and use of veterinary vaccines, mainly in zoos—but the question of which species need to be immunized, now or in the future, remains an open one.

Zoos, which look after a relatively small number of often rare and high-value animals, clearly want to protect the species in their care. COVID-19 has caused a handful of animal deaths in zoos to date—including three snow leopards at a children’s zoo in Nebraska and two lions at a zoo in India.

Another concern, fueled by findings that the virus has entered some populations of wild animals, is that SARS-CoV-2 could mutate in other species and spread back to humans, prolonging the pandemic. Vaccination might prevent that and protect the animals themselves.

Developing a veterinary vaccine
Vaccines for humans require expensive development programs and large scale trials, and are generally prioritized for vaccinating people. Animal vaccines commonly require a lower level of scrutiny, and often have a different makeup. There is precedent for jabs that can be used on multiple species, so some veterinary pharmaceutical companies have sought to develop a COVID-19 shot that can be used to vaccinate many different types of animal.

Among these firms is Zoetis. The US-based company is in the process of donating around 26,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for animals to zoos and animal sanctuaries in 13 countries, including the US and Canada. Another COVID-19 vaccine intended for use in animals was developed in Russia, and there is a further, forthcoming vaccine made by Applied DNA Sciences and Evvivax. The two companies initially intended the vaccine to be used for cats but are now reported to be focused on inoculating mink instead.



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