Abstract

Since the appearance of SARS-CoV-2 in late 2019 in China, to date, the disease COVID-19 (for the definition of the terms related to the virus, see Gilardi (2020)) has killed more than 3 million humans worldwide, around 2% of the 150 million people infected (http://corona.tuply.co.za/).

Despite vaccinations becoming available in 2021, the disease continues to rage around the world, due limited and unequal access and vaccine escape among new variants. The result has been a global crisis, impacting economies and health, and leading to lockdowns that limit activities and trade. In addition to concerns about human populations, there are serious concerns about the transmission risk of COVID-19 to already threatened non-human primates (NHPs), due to their physiologic and genetic similarities close to humans (Melin et al., 2020) with extinctions of some species a real possibility.

Experts recommended a range of measures, including halting research or tourism activities to reduce the risk of the virus spreading (Gillespie & Leendertz, 2020). In addition, NHPs serve as an umbrella species for the thousands of animals, insects, and plants in their habitats. In January 2021, the first positive cases for COVID-19 in African primates were reported in captive gorillas in the San Diego Safari Zoo Park (California, USA), which with health care did not lead to lethal consequences (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/captive-gorillas-test-positive-coronavirus).