Gorillas at U.S. San Diego zoo test positive for COVID-19

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Several gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in California, the United States, have tested positive for COVID-19, in the first known instance of natural transmission to great apes, zoo officials said on Monday.

Officials of the San Diego Zoo Global, which operates the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, said in a press release that they initiated the process of testing fecal samples from the gorillas through the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System after two of the gorillas began coughing on Jan. 6.