The world's 1063 mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) live in two subpopulations at the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. The majority of mountain gorillas are human-habituated to facilitate tourism and research, which brings mountain gorillas into close proximity of people daily. Wild great apes are proven to be susceptible to human pathogens, including viruses that have caused fatal respiratory disease in mountain gorillas (e.g., human metapneumovirus¹). This is the result of the close genetic relatedness of humans and gorillas as species, and the structural and genetic similarity in molecular receptors that allow viruses to infect cells². At the time of writing, there is no evidence that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, the coronavirus that causes coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), has infected a mountain gorilla. However, due to the significant potential for human-to-gorilla transmission, mountain gorilla range States took immediate steps to minimize the COVID-19 threat. These actions included a combination of preventive practice around gorillas and other great apes (e.g., mandatory face mask use, increased “social” minimum distancing from gorillas) as well as human public health measures (e.g., daily health/fever screenings, COVID-19 screening, and quarantines). Minimization of the COVID-19 threat also required socioeconomic decision-making and political will, as all gorilla tourism was suspended by late March 2020 and guidelines developed for tourism reopening. A consortium that collaborates and coordinates on mountain gorilla management and conservation, working within an intergovernmental institutional framework, took a multifaceted One Health approach to address the COVID-19 threat to mountain gorillas by developing a phased contingency plan for prevention and response. The aim of this paper is to describe how range States and partners achieved this collaborative planning effort, with intent that this real-world experience will inform similar actions at other great ape sites.

中文翻译：

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濒临灭绝的山地大猩猩和 COVID-19：全球大流行期间预防和准备的一堂健康课

世界上 1063 只山地大猩猩（Gorilla beringei beringei）生活在刚果民主共和国、卢旺达和乌干达边境的两个亚种群中。大多数山地大猩猩是人类习惯的，以促进旅游和研究，这使得山地大猩猩每天都与人们近距离接触。野生类人猿已被证明对人类病原体敏感，包括在山地大猩猩中引起致命呼吸道疾病的病毒（例如，人类偏肺病毒¹）。这是人类和大猩猩作为物种的密切遗传相关性以及允许病毒感染细胞的分子受体的结构和遗传相似性的结果². 在撰写本文时，没有证据表明导致冠状病毒病 19 (COVID-19) 的冠状病毒 2 型严重急性呼吸系统综合症已经感染了山地大猩猩。然而，由于人际传播的巨大潜力，山地大猩猩分布国立即采取措施将 COVID-19 威胁降至最低。这些行动包括针对大猩猩和其他类人猿的预防措施（例如，强制使用口罩、增加与大猩猩的“社会”最小距离）以及人类公共卫生措施（例如，日常健康/发烧筛查、COVID-19筛查和隔离）。将 COVID-19 威胁降到最低还需要社会经济决策和政治意愿，因为到 2020 年 3 月下旬所有大猩猩旅游业都已暂停，并为旅游业重新开放制定了指导方针。一个在山地大猩猩管理和保护方面进行合作和协调的财团，在政府间机构框架内工作，采取了多方面的 One Health 方法，通过制定分阶段的预防和应对应急计划来应对 COVID-19 对山地大猩猩的威胁。本文的目的是描述分布国家和合作伙伴如何实现这种协作规划工作，目的是让这种现实世界的经验为其他类人猿遗址的类似行动提供信息。