WARMINGTON: Some Toronto Zoo animals are scheduled to receive COVID vaccine

Article content

First, Toronto Zoo staff and visitors should get vaccinated against COVID-19. Now the zoo bosses want to do the same with the animals.

Article content

“We haven’t vaccinated any of our animals yet, but we want to,” said zoo spokeswoman Jennifer Tracey.

the Toronto sun learned that the zoo is awaiting regulatory approvals to protect animals from the deadly virus blamed for the deaths of a snow leopard in a South Dakota zoo and a lion in India.

The Toronto Zoo said Wednesday that it is working on purchasing vaccines for animals.

“While the experimental vaccine is not yet approved in Canada, we are working closely with the manufacturer, Zoetis, to gain access to the vaccines,” Tracey said.

He explained that this is being done “in the hope of vaccinating our animals that are most susceptible to COVID-19, such as our primates, big cats and pigs.” All of this would be preventative as no animals at the Toronto Zoo have contracted COVID.

Article content

The Cincinnati Zoo announced that it has vaccinated 80 animals, including big cats, great apes, red pandas, goats, giraffes, river otters, skunks and bears.

On his website, Dr. Mark Campbell said that the Cincinnati Zoo was “concerned that the fresh memory of the first injection would make the animals less willing to offer a shoulder or thigh for the second round, but it did! they made!”

The Toronto Zoo has more than 5,000 animals, but the vaccine will be administered to only a few, including lions, gorillas, monkeys, tigers and gorillas who are at risk of contracting COVID from handlers or guests.

“We still don’t have a sense of time around approval” for the “more than 140 animals that would qualify,” added zoo spokeswoman Katie Gray. “At the time we ordered the vaccines, there was only one company that offered a product developed for animals: Zoetis. There are no Canadian manufacturers or other companies that offer a specific COVID vaccine for animals. “

Article content

I reached out to business analyst Lou Schizas to learn more about Zoetis, which happens to be a major player in animal health.

“Zoetis Inc. is an American pharmaceutical company, the world’s largest producer of medicines and vaccines for pets and livestock,” explained Schizas, adding that the company was once a subsidiary of COVID vaccine producer Pfizer.

On its website, Zoetis describes itself as a company that “discovers, develops, manufactures and markets drugs, vaccines and diagnostic products, complemented by biodevices, genetic testing and precision farming. Zoetis serves veterinarians, livestock producers, and people who raise and care for farm and companion animals in more than 100 countries. “

Zoetis is listed to have a Canadian office in Quebec.

“Once the experimental Zoetis vaccine acquires sufficient data from clinical trials, the company will seek approval from animal regulatory agencies” such as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Once approved, the Toronto Zoo will join Cincinnati in being a facility where staff, visitors and animals are vaccinated.