How a Chennai zoo saved its lions from COVID-19 Delta variant!

On the occasion of World Lion Day (August 10), veterinarians and officials from the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, commonly known as Vandalur Zoo (Chennai), recalled their experience of dealing with 15 lions that were affected by the Delta COVID-19 variant. 

Chennai: Amid the pandemic, we’ve read harrowing accounts of heroic doctors and frontline workers who toiled to save the lives of COVID-19 patients, but what if your patients aren’t obedient homo-sapiens? In the case at hand, the patients are alpha predators, the kings of the jungle - majestic Asiatic lions. On the occasion of World Lion Day (August 10), veterinarians and officials from the Arignar Anna Zoological Park, commonly known as Vandalur Zoo (Chennai), recalled their experience of dealing with 15 lions that were affected by the Delta COVID-19 variant. For the Zoo vets, a team of eight members, it was a case of ‘reverse spillover’ when they noticed a few lions showing COVID-19 symptoms. It meant that the SARS CoV-2 virus (that causes COVID-19) which is said to have originated from bats (in Wuhan, China) and affected humans, had now spread back to members of the animal kingdom. It was not new, lions at Bronx Zoo New York, and at Indian Zoos in Etawah, Jaipur and Hyderabad too had tested COVID-19 positive.