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szdaily -> Kaleidoscope -> 
Four lions test coronavirus-positive in zoo
    2020-12-10  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

FOUR lions have tested positive for coronavirus at a Barcelona zoo, most likely infected by an asymptomatic staffer, zoo officials said.

It’s one of a handful of times a feline zoo animal has contracted COVID-19, according to Reuters. The first time was last April, when five tigers and three lions caught it at the Bronx Zoo in New York.

More recently, three tigers were quarantined at Zoo Knoxville in Tennessee, the U.S., after they “exhibited mild coughing, lethargy and decrease in appetite,” the facility said in a statement in late October. One of them tested positive at the time, and all three were treated as if they had it.

In Barcelona, zookeepers tested a 4-year-old male lion named Kiumbe, and three 16-year-old females — Zala, Nima and Run Run — last month after they showed mild symptoms. Two zoo staff also tested positive, authorities said.

The zoo said in a statement that the animals had shown upper respiratory symptoms, reported BBC News. They are still sneezing and have mild coughs, but are otherwise on the mend, the zoo said.

“The lions were given veterinary care for their mild clinical condition — similar to a very mild flu condition — through anti-inflammatory treatment and close monitoring, and the animals responded well,” the zoo said in a statement.

The lions are not in contact with other animals at the zoo. Neither do they get close enough to visitors, or vice versa, to endanger them.

“Simply, no one who comes to see [the lions] gets close enough,” the Barcelona Zoo said, according to BBC News.

Zookeepers tested the cats the same way they would do on a human, with a nasal swab, BBC News reported, apparently possible because the lions are comfortable enough with the staff to allow them to stick a giant cotton swab up their nostrils.(SD-Agencies)

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