Zoo primates share many diseases with humans, making health management both complex and critical. Preventive care programs protect individual welfare and prevent zoonotic disease transmission.
Zoo primate health welfare involves managing the consequence of close phylogenetic relationship with humans - primates are susceptible to many human diseases while simultaneously living in close contact with human staff and visitors. The COVID-19 pandemic provided vivid evidence of this risk, with gorillas and other great apes testing positive at multiple facilities. Respiratory diseases that cause mild illness in humans can be severe or fatal in great apes whose populations have no evolutionary history with these pathogens. The protective measures required - staff health screening, visitor distancing, mask wearing near ape exhibits - represent straightforward welfare interventions with clear evidence basis.