Sea otters get the COVID vaccine
Concern over possible risk to endangered species prompts preventive care
When Dr. Mike Murray’s needle was ready, the scene gave a new definition to “vaccine hesitant.” There was wriggling and squirming, even with four assistants wearing thick, biteproof gloves holding the patient on a mat with a duffel bag filled with foam.
“Buzz saw in a fur coat,” Murray joked after administering the shot into a patch of thick fur.
It was over in 10 seconds, with no selfies, stickers or lollipops. And California’s latest COVID-19 vaccine recipient was ready to head back into the tank that serves as her temporary home at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
The aquarium has begun vaccinating sea otters, a species that is still on the endangered list, in an effort to reduce the risk of a devastating outbreak among the fuzzy, beloved mascots of California’s central coast.
The program, believed to the first in the nation to vaccinate sea otters, is being closely watched by other aquariums and zoos, which are likely to follow suit.
“There’s a lot of evidence that this family of animals — ferrets, mink, otters — are susceptible,” said Murray, the aquarium’s chief veterinarian. “We have an obligation to protect the animals’ health.”
Since August, the aquarium has vaccinated eight sea otters, finishing the group this week. Four — Ivy, Abby, Kit and Selka — live in the aquarium and frolic in a big exhibit tank while visitors take photos.
The other four are wild otters that came to the aquarium as part of its rescue-and-rehabilitation program. When otter pups are stranded on beaches, having been separated from their mothers, they are sometimes brought to the aquarium where they are restored to health, raised by surrogate otter mothers and then released back into the wild.
Each otter was given two doses, three weeks apart of a vaccine made by Zoetis, a New Jersey company that is the leading seller of animal drugs in the world.
So far, Murray said, they have had no adverse reactions.
“They don’t seem to miss a beat,” he said.
To date, none of the otters at the aquarium, or other animals there, has tested positive for COVID-19.
But in April, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta announced that several of its Asian small-clawed otters tested positive for SARSCOV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Their symptoms included sneezing, runny noses, lethargy and coughing. Georgia Aquarium officials suspected the otters caught the infection from a staff member who was not showing symptoms.
Those otters survived.
The Mercury News’ community newspapers are published weekly on Fridays throughout Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
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