Protecting the Endangered

Terio is a veterinary pathologist working to protect the health of wild animals. She heads the diagnostic lab of the Zoological Pathology Program, part of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois. Recently, she’s worked on assessing the impact of the Gulf oil spill on wildlife. She’s traveled the world in efforts to protect endangered species. “I’ve worked a lot with chimpanzees in Africa, trying to understand the health of those animals and the threats they face. I also work with big cats pretty much all over the world.”

Why Test a Tiger?

When a number of the big cats at the Bronx Zoo started acting sick, Terio’s lab was called in to help. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) was confirmed in at least one of them, a female Malayan tiger (“one of the rarest subspecies out there”) who likely caught it from a zoo worker, says Terio. She was surprised, she says, to see the virus showing up in a big cat. “As I watched the growth of COVID-19, my main concern had initially been about great apes and how susceptible they might be, given how rampantly the virus has spread among humans." 

Terio is at pains to point out that no human was denied a test so that the tiger, who has now recovered from the virus, could have one. “I must stress that Nadia did not take anybody’s place in line. The tests were done in a veterinary diagnostic lab that cannot and does not test human samples.”

What now?

“Now at least we know for certain that a tiger can contract this novel coronavirus, so it’s likely there are other big cats out there who are infected,” Terio says. This is useful information, she adds, because it helps us understand the bigger picture and what sorts of species might be affected. It's also good to know that certain animals can be naturally infected, as opposed to being purposefully injected with the virus as part of a clinical experiment in a laboratory. “A research paper started circulating recently that showed domestic cats could contract SARS-CoV-2 when deliberately infected. We recently learned of domestic cats with respiratory signs that tested positive, proving that cats can be naturally infected as well.” Terio also stresses that these few cases should not be an undue cause for concern among domestic pet owners.

If there is a risk for pet owners, particularly regarding the domestic cat, it’s the possibility of people giving the virus to their pets, says Terio. “There’s no evidence of animal to human infection, but it is possible your cat could catch it. So, if you’re showing symptoms of COVID-19, try to get someone to watch your pets so you don’t risk getting them sick too.”

 

Other Species

Apart from continuing with her teaching duties at the veterinary college in Illinois, Terio is also involved in ongoing research into how the coronavirus might affect other species. “We work with a wide variety of species at the lab—‘from snails to whales’ is the joke—and we’re trying to get a handle on what animals are more susceptible to the virus. We’re constantly talking to people at other labs and zoos about how to develop tests and studies that will enable us to answer some key questions about how the animal world is affected by and responding to COVID-19.” Like many on the front line of the war against the current pandemic, Terio and her colleagues are swimming in uncharted waters. “It’s a brand-new disease,” she explains, “so we’re all on a very steep learning curve.”

Karen Terio was a biology major at Bowdoin, who earned her degree cum laude. She gained a degree in veterinary medicine from Tufts in 1996 before earning a PhD in pathology at the University of California in 2000.