Tiger at NYC’s Bronx Zoo tests positive for coronavirus
Associated PressNEW YORK — A tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the new coronavirus, in what is believed to be the first known infection in an animal in the U.S. or a tiger anywhere, federal officials and the zoo said Sunday. Still, Rooney said a small number of animals in the U.S. have been tested through the USDA’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories, and all those tests came back negative except Nadia’s. At the Bronx Zoo, Nadia, her sister Azul, two Amur tigers and three African lions developed dry coughs, and some of the cats exhibited some wheezing and loss of appetite, said Dr. Paul Calle, the zoo’s chief veterinarian. The staff figured there could be a relatively routine explanation for the cats’ symptoms but tested Nadia for coronavirus out of “due diligence and an abundance of caution,” Breheny said.