Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo to begin vaccinating animals against COVID-19

Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park Zoo has begun administering the COVID-19 vaccine to 55 animals in its care.

“Fortunately, we've now been able to bring in the animal-specific vaccine and begin vaccinating the animals in our care,” Dr. Chris Enright, the zoo's director of veterinary services and animal welfare, told CBC News in a phone interview on Tuesday.

While there have been no cases of COVID-19 among animals at the Winnipeg Zoo, others have had fatal cases, Assiniboine Park said in a news release.

The Winnipeg Zoo is one of a number of accredited facilities in Canada vaccinating animals against COVID-19.

“Our staff is thrilled. No one cares more about animals than the people who spend their lives with and for them,” Enright said.

The animal vaccine is made by Zoetis, a New Jersey-based veterinary pharmaceutical company, specifically to protect species at high risk of contracting the disease, the zoo said.

Development of the vaccine began when the pandemic began, Enright said, and it became widely available last year.

“This is not a vaccine that is removed from the human vaccine. It is a vaccine for and intended for animals,” he said.

“So it's not a question of competing with people and developing countries (for vaccination) because these are completely different vaccines.”

Animals in close contact with their caretakers are most vulnerable to COVID-19, according to a zoo news release.

Animals that can receive the COVID-19 vaccine include:

• Amur tigers, snow leopards and other cats.

• White-handed gibbons, squirrel monkeys and other primates.

• Camels, goats and llamas.

• Skunks and meerkats.

Vaccination is done in two doses, approximately three weeks apart.