According to the recent reports, “a four year old female Malayan tiger at the Bronx Zoo has tested positive for the Coronavirus. The tiger, named Nadia, is believed to be the first known case of an animal infected with Covid-19 in the U.S.A. The Bronx Zoo, in New York City, says the test result was confirmed by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Iowa. Nadia, along with six other big cats, is thought to have been infected by an asymptomatic zoo keeper. The cats started showing symptoms, including a dry cough, late last month after exposure to the employee, who has not been identified.” This is a very serious issue because not only the animals bring additional transmission traits to us but also if the virus attacked endangered animals, their species will be wiped out because they do not have conscious behavioral changes that will enable them protect themselves like we do. So we need to develop a mechanism that will disrupt the transmission line from animals to animals and animals to humans as soon as possible before things get out of control.

This project is about building a face mask for zoo animals to protect them from getting infected with the Coronavirus. This mask design has a conical shape that uses the neck of the animals as an anchor to support the mask structure. In order to protect them from direct air flow into their mouth, nose and eyes which is the main means of transmission of the Coronavirus, the conical shaped mask have two detachable covers installed at the larger diameter end of the conical shaped mask. The two detachable covers have holes to allow air flow for them to breath but since the hole are aligned in an offset position; there will not be any direct air flow in to the mask and out of the mask. This will be efficient in preventing the virus as good as our masks we use to protect ourselves. The smaller diameter end of the mask has a belt structure that is used to tighten or loosen the mask based on the diameter of the neck of the animals and since the mask is made of completely transparent material, there will not be any discomfort in their vision 360 degree.

The main route of transmission of Coronavirus from one person to another is through droplets which are sneezed or coughed out by infected people. A single cough can produce up to 3,000 droplets, while a sneeze can produce as many as 10,000. These droplets then fall on a surface that is touched by uninfected person, who then touches their face and in to mouth, eye or noise. According to the latest MIT report, the Coronavirus can travel 27 feet in the air horizontally and vertically and stay in the air for hours. The virus travels in much tinier droplets in form of “aerosol" (virus remains suspended in the air in very tiny water droplets).

For more information please visit https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/health-security-pandemics/solutions/21752