Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091955750600.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

One in four temple elephants suffers from TB: study

Divya Gandhi

This disease is ‘zoonotic’ and can be transmitted between humans, animals

The study covered 387 captive elephants in four regions
Many of the elephants with tuberculosis seemed to look healthy

Vulnerable: With no exercise, denied adequate nutrition and subject to stress, temple elephants are highly susceptible to tuberculosis.

Bangalore: A staggering 15 per cent of captive elephants in south India suffer from tuberculosis (TB) — and the worst hit are temple elephants. No fewer than one in four temple elephants in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands suffer from TB, a first comprehensive study of domestic elephants has found.

Cramped within small enclosures, tethered for weeks on end with no exercise, denied adequate nutrition and subject to stress, temple elephants are highly susceptible to TB, explains elephant expert Jacob Cheeran, principal investigator of the study which was sponsored by Bangalore-based non-government organisation Asian Nature and Conservation Foundation.

“TB is an airborne and zoonotic disease, which can be transmitted between humans and animals. In temples, the elephant is exposed to thousands of devotees every day and are fed food that could also be contaminated with the bacteria,” Prof. Cheeran told The Hindu.

The study of 387 captive elephants in the four regions looked at 45 parameters and was completed earlier this year. These included elephants used by the State Forest Departments, privately owned elephants, and temple elephants. While over 25 per cent of temple elephants were found to have TB, 24 per cent of private elephants tested positive for the disease and around 11 per cent of elephants with the Forest Departments had TB.

“We also discovered that many of the elephants with TB seemed to look healthy. But they get exhausted very quickly when they are put to work like logging operations.

Typically in TB cases, nodules form in the lungs and this was revealed in many of the elephant post-mortems,” said Prof. Cheeran who is also former director of the Elephant Study Centre in Thrissur.

But there is a good lot of work yet to be done, he added. “More work is needed to find out the spread of TB among elephants, find appropriate treatments and measures to control the disease.” He said that the report has been sent to Project Elephant. “The information will hopefully urge the Ministry of Environment and Forest to take action.”

What complicates matters is that TB is difficult to tackle. “The treatment involves multiple drugs and extends to a period of 10 months. It is an expensive proposition when dealing with animals. There is also a lot of stigma attached to TB and so we have to be careful how the information is divulged confidentially to the owners and mahouts so they can take necessary action.”