The case prompted the zoo to request an experimental COVID-19 vaccine for animals for emergency use.
An unvaccinated snow leopard at the San Diego Zoo has contracted COVID-19.
Caretakers noticed that Ramil, a 9-year-old male snow leopard, had a cough and runny nose on Thursday. Later, two separate tests of his stool confirmed the presence of the coronavirus, the zoo said in a statement on Friday.
Ramil is not showing additional symptoms, the zoo said, but because he shares an enclosure with a female snow leopard and two Amur leopards, the staff assumes they have been exposed. As a result, the animals were quarantined and their exhibit was closed.
It’s unclear how Ramil got infected.
In January, a troop of eight gorillas at the zoo’s sister facility, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, contracted COVID-19 from a keeper who had the virus but showed no symptoms.
The gorilla troop, which has since recovered, became the first known example of the virus infecting apes.
The case prompted the…