Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Three Mithun culled at city zoo

Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three Mithun were culled at the city zoo on Thursday afternoon to prevent the spread of what is suspected to be Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) that led to the death of four of these animals during the last three days.

The culling, approved by the government, was done on the recommendation of a technical committee consisting of veterinarians and the director of the Department of Animal Husbandry. The three Mithun, including a seven-months-old calf, were an intravenous dosage of magnesium sulphate solution till their hearts stopped.

With this there are no more of Mithun left at the zoo. These ox-like animals are endemic to the north eastern parts of the country.

The carcasses of the culled animals were buried along with large quantities of disinfectants within the zoo premises. The tissue and fluid samples taken from the Mithun that died on July 3 and on July 4 and the two that died on Thursday have been sent for analysis to the office of the Chief Disease Investigation Officer at Palode. The ‘typing’ of the virus present in the samples is expected to be over in the next two days.

According to Chief Disease Investigation Officer H. Vishwanathan, one of the members of the technical committee, the culling was recommended to prevent the spread of the virus to other animals. “Though we have not officially confirmed Foot and Mouth Disease, all the animals that died and were culled were showing all symptoms of the disease,” he told The Hindu on Thursday. The virus could have entered the zoo by air, through the fodder /meat given to the animals or through the footwear of the visitors.

Indications that the disease had spread to other animals at the zoo came when a black buck calf and two adult bucks showed signs of fever and other symptoms of Foot and Mouth Disease on Thursday. Two adult bucks died on Wednesday night. However, zoo director Elcy George said here that the adult bucks had died of old age and not of any disease. A cape buffalo is also reportedly showing symptoms of having been infected with the FMD virus.

Zoo vet Jayakumar said here that the giraffe, the hippo, the elephant and the rhino are all susceptible to the FMD virus. “We have disinfected the area around the Mithun enclosure. The animal keepers at this enclosure are not being allowed to go near any other enclosure,” he said. According to zoo superintendent S. Abu the sterilisation is being done using, among other things, bleaching power and lime.

The technical committee has also recommended that visitors to the zoo be asked to step into a trough containing a disinfectant solution placed at the entry and exit points of the zoo.

“If FMD is confirmed we may have to recommend the administering of containment vaccination to animals in a 6 km radius around the zoo. However, this vaccine cannot be given non-domestic animals,” Dr. Vishwanathan said.

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