On Oct. 6, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories announced confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – in two previously uninfected animal species at a zoo in Illinois. Dr. Leyi Wang, a virologist and professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, first tested the samples in the university’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, with his positive results then verified by the NVSL. Wang talked with News Bureau Biomedical Sciences Editor Liz Ahlberg Touchstone about zoological transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the VDL’s involvement in testing animal samples, and why animal transmission is important to identify and track.

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