The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has asked all chief wildlife wardens of tiger range States to collect tissues of dead animals for pathological analysis. The field staffers have also been asked to check water quality in tiger reserves (pre-and post-monsoon) along with chemical analysis.
These preventive measures come after a report published in a journal ‘Veterinary Science’ cited how a dead Asiatic lion from Gujarat was detected with a lethal virus in its tissues after the animal came in contact with other infected animals like cattle, buffaloes or dogs. There also have been recent reports on the spread of lethal canine distemper virus CDV in tigers in countries like Indonesia and Russia.
NTCA in its advisory has asked States to vaccinate stray cattle and dogs living around reserves on a regular basis adding that incidents of wild animals showing abnormal behaviour must also be monitored and reported immediately.
The disease caused by CDV is incurable. According to experts, its symptoms include high fever, watery eyes, vomiting, diarrhoea, paralysis and death. The infected animals have also been observed to display strange behaviour, with disorientation and inability to predate, besides loss of fear.
The article published in the journal pointed out that similar symptoms were observed in the lion, which finally led to its death. The samples of the lion though tested negative for CDV but was found positive for peste des petits ruminants (PPR) virus, which may be yet another of its kind transmitted from domestic animals.
Although it is most common in dogs, such virus infects wild animals, including several vulnerable species. In 1994, an epidemic killed over 1,000 lions in the Serengeti region of Tanzania and Kenya, almost a third of the population. The disease was transmitted by infected dogs, so local veterinary researchers began vaccinating local dogs. The virus was also partly responsible for the near-extinction of the North American black-footed ferret, and a mutated version has repeatedly struck European seals.