Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo in California have Covid-19.
This is the first known case of transmission in these animals.
The management of the zoo wants to be reassuring about the state of health of its primates.
“They have mild symptoms and we continue to see them but they drink, they eat and they interact with each other,” says Lisa Peterson, director of the San Diego Zoo.
About 98% DNA in common with humans
On January 6, two primates began to cough, which alerted the zoo management. Two cases are confirmed, but eight gorillas are believed to be infected. They have been placed in quarantine. Humans and other primates have a very similar genome, with gorillas having about 98% of their DNA in common. Lisa Peterson assures us that all precautions were taken: "despite this, we were exposed to contamination which, in our opinion, occurred with a member of the team".