The quiet work of the creators of the COVID-19 vaccine for animals

The COVID-19 This month ended the life of Ekundu, a lion who caught the virus in the zoo where he lived in Hawaii (USA) and perhaps could have been saved with a vaccine, still in the experimental phase, specifically designed to animals and much less known than human vaccines.

“When we learned of the first dog infected with COVID-19, a case that occurred in Hong Kong in 2020 (in February), we immediately went to work on a vaccine that could be used in animals,” says Mahesh Kumar, Senior Vice President of Biology Global of the American company Zoetis, the world’s largest producer of medicines and vaccines for pets and livestock.

According to Kumar, in eight months they carried out the initial safety studies and then presented the vaccine at the 2020 edition of the World One Health Congress, an event in which the transmission of diseases between humans and animals is studied in the context of their social factors. and environmental.

For now, the Zoetis vaccine is not marketed and its experimental use is only authorized on a case-by-case basis by the veterinary authorities in the Department of Agriculture of USA.

Zoetis has donated doses of the vaccine to nearly 70 zoos and a dozen reserves, sanctuaries and academic and government institutions spread across 27 states in the United States, according to a spokesman for the company, which is based in Parsippany, New Jersey.

The company does not provide information about its donors, but it did announce that it had helped the San Diego Zoo (Southern California) when several of its great apes became infected with COVID-19.

Almost 300 pets and captive animals infected

As of October 25, the veterinary authorities of the United States had registered 290 confirmed cases of animals with COVID-19 in the country since the beginning of the pandemic, of them 100 cats and 89 dogs.

They are followed by lions, with 35 cases, tigers (31), farm minks (17), gorillas (13), snow leopards (11), otters (7) and then isolated cases in ferrets, pumas and coatis, according to the United States Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

In most cases registered in zoos or reserves, sick animals have been cured shortly after receiving treatment, according to these institutions.

Ekundu was not so lucky, perhaps because, as with humans, the weakest find it more difficult to resist the onslaught of COVID-19.

He was 13 years old, the only male lion at the Honololu Zoo and suffered from a five-year chronic illness that had caused him epilepsy, center director Linda Santos said when announcing his death this week.

Like Ekundu, the lioness Moxy, with whom he lived in the same enclosure and had three children, began showing symptoms of a respiratory illness in early October and also tested positive for COVID-19.

But Moxy responded to treatment and is on the mend, according to the zoo.

In search of vaccines

The Honolulu Zoo authorities announced that, after the death of Ekundu, who was born in 2007 and arrived in Hawaii in 2010, they have stepped up prevention measures and are trying to find vaccines for their animals.

“We continue to receive many requests for our vaccine against COVID-19 for animals and we must comply with the regulations of each country. We are looking for opportunities to help zoos and other animal organizations outside the United States protect their own, ”the spokeswoman said.

The Zoetis experimental vaccine is formulated only for animals.

The virus or antigen is the same as in human vaccines, but the carrier or adjuvant used is different.

“The special combination of antigen and adjuvant guarantees safety and efficacy for the species to which the vaccine is administered. The Zoetis adjuvant has been shown to be safe for many animal species, the company says.

Zoetis Senior Vice President said that “fortunately currently the COVID-19 vaccine is not needed for pets or livestock” and showed his pride in being able to help animals at risk of infection in zoos.

“Now more than ever before the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the important connection between animal health and human health. We continue to monitor whether infectious diseases arise that can impact animals and also people ”.

Mike McFarland, Zoetis Chief Medical Officer, was proud of the company’s “innovative research and development work” by helping “veterinarians in the zoo community provide high-level care for primates, felines and many other species ”.

Last April the World Health Organization (WHO) published a report on the origin of COVID-19, in which four possible theories are pointed out, including that of the laboratory accident, which the agency considered the least likely.

Peter Embarek, head of the WHO team and other agencies that visited Wuhan (China) in early 2021 to study the origin of the coronavirus, has said that COVID-19 could begin after a researcher from a laboratory in that Chinese city become infected with a bat.