On May 16, 2022, working with state and federal wildlife agencies and private and public zoos across Arizona, the Translational Genomics Research Institute announced that it was testing wild animals in captivity and in nature for SARS-CoV-2, the pathogen that causes COVID-19 in humans.

TGen provided the zoos and the state and federal wildlife personnel with collection kits. Only mammals were tested, as there were no documented cases of birds, reptiles, fish, or amphibians being infected by SARS-CoV-2 to date.