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Lions at Borås Zoo in 2012. It is not known if these lions have been diagnosed with an infection. Photo: TT
Two tigers and five lions at the Borås Zoo in Sweden have been diagnosed with corona infection. Also, a tiger was killed.
Reports from Borås Tidning.
According to the newspaper, on January 9 and 10, employees discovered that some of the animals were coughing and had poor appetites. Thus, the park sent samples to laboratories in Sweden and abroad, which confirmed that the animals were infected.
In addition to the seven animals that fell ill, a 17-year-old tiger died on January 11 after being infected with corona. This is confirmed by Karl Ståhl of the Swedish Veterinary Institute to VG.
Therese Hård, zoological director of the Borås Zoo, assumes that the animals have been infected by humans. Three people on staff are infected with coronavirus.
Sick animals are treated and staff are quarantined.
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Hard says the situation is under control.
– It does not seem that more people or animals have gotten sick, the animals no longer have difficulty breathing, he says.
According to the newspaper, sick animals received treatment for symptoms and employees were quarantined.
– It doesn’t seem like more people or animals have gotten sick, and the symptoms of animals that previously had respiratory symptoms have now decreased, he says.
Karl Ståhl, a acting state epizootologist, doesn’t think the zoo’s case is particularly notable.
“We know that cats are exposed to the coronavirus and there have been several similar cases internationally with big cats in zoos,” he told the newspaper.
It says that animals become infected if they are around sick people.
He is not concerned about the situation.
– On the one hand, you are not so close to a tiger that you can get infected, so the tiger is usually more dangerous than the infection, I think, he says.
