How does a popular Central Florida attraction keep both staff and animals safe during a pandemic?
Find out as Chief Judge Don Myers speaks to Dino Ferri, CEO of Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens, about planning, preparing, and protecting the zoo and its visitors for the foreseeable future. They also explore how zoonotic diseases like COVID-19 can spread between animals to humans. From tigers to pigs to housecats and beyond, this conversation explores how the human, animal, and viral kingdoms overlap.
Show Notes
1:21 - Dino Ferri’s experience working with zoos
3:08 - Pet stores, conservation, and reptiles
4:50 - Zoonotic diseases, salmonella and human-animal transmission
7:15 - COVID-19 in tigers and staff at the Bronx Zoo
9:15 - COVID-19 in domesticated cats and dogs
10:42 - Animals at risk – primates, pigs, small carnivores
12:20 - Safety measures at the Central Florida Zoo
15:57 - Safety of the animals and the zoo’s financial stability
16:59 - Adapting to the situation as we learn more
18:30 - No cases of COVID-19 at the Central Florida Zoo