Chennai: Four Vandalur zoo lions positive for Delta variant

CHENNAI: Four lions of Vandalur Arignar Anna Zoological Park infected by SARS-CoV-2 have now tested positive for the highly contagious Delta variant. The strain, which has largely been responsible for surge in cases in humans, was declared a variant of concern by the World Health Organisation on May 11.
“We are treating all four lions symptomatically in the best possible way,” zoo authorities said on Friday. A few big cats at Hyderabad and Jaipur zoos have already tested positive for the variant. The zoological park had sent the samples lifted from 11 captive lions to ICAR-National Institute of High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD), Bhopal. The institute, which is one of the four approved facilities in the country to test captive animals, confirmed that nine lions tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 on June 3.
City zoo virus variant highly transmissible
Vandalur zoo authorities had requested NIHSAD, which also undertakes research on exotic and emerging pathogens in animals, to share the results of genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that infected the lions. The director of NIHSAD informed the zoo that genome sequencing of four samples showed that the sequence belong to Pangolin lineage B.1.617.2 and are Delta variants as per WHO nomenclature. WHO had said the variant showed evidence of higher transmissibility and reduced neutralisation, a zoo release said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the state government on Friday constituted a state-level task force to provide support and guidance to authorities on prevention and mitigation of Covid-19 infection in wild and captive animals in tiger reserves, national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forests. This six-member team headed by TN environment secretary Supriya Sahu will have a close watch on disease surveillance, mapping and monitoring system, vaccination and publish reports, a release said.