{"id":11444,"date":"2026-02-11T19:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11444"},"modified":"2026-02-11T19:11:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:11:20","slug":"scientists-stunned-after-virus-jumps-between-humans-and-animals-it-was-a-very-unusual-situation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/02\/11\/scientists-stunned-after-virus-jumps-between-humans-and-animals-it-was-a-very-unusual-situation\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists stunned after virus jumps between humans and animals: ‘It was a very unusual situation’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Yahoo News<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers in Colorado were stunned while analyzing how the COVID-19 virus spread from humans to animals at the Denver Zoo in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s happening?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A study<\/a> published in the journal Nature Communications in December looked at an instance of the COVID-19 virus spreading from humans to big cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Westword<\/a>, after humans initially transmitted the virus to two tigers, 11 lions and then two hyenas tested positive. While lions and hyenas lived in separate communities, none of the species had direct contact with each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It was a very unusual situation to see three different species sequentially infected like this, and we really don’t know how that happened,” said<\/a> Sue VandeWoude, a CSU veterinarian, virologist, and study author. “[The zoo was] taking significant precautions.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the animals all made full recoveries. Researchers found, however, that the COVID-19 virus mutated while it was in the animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the study, these included certain traits that could “increase viral replication and fitness.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yahoo News Researchers in Colorado were stunned while analyzing how the COVID-19 virus spread from humans to animals at the Denver Zoo in 2021. What’s happening? A study published in the journal Nature Communications in December looked at an instance of the COVID-19 virus spreading from humans to big cats. According to Westword, after humans initially transmitted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11445,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11444\/revisions\/11445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}