Due to the canine distemper virus, about 28 lions in Gujarat’s Gir Lion Sanctuary died in just two weeks in 2018.
A tigress aged eight years and her cub were found dead in Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve on Wednesday. This happened just one week after three of her other cubs were also found dead in the reserve. Initially, a post-mortem examination showed that the animals had a lung infection. However, sources in the area say that the canine distemper virus was the real reason.
It only took a week for all five tigers to die because they were so weak
“This isn’t a normal lung infection; it’s the canine distemper virus, which makes an animal immune to everything,” a person close to the forest department said.
On April 21, the body of a male tiger cub was found in the Sarhi range of Kanha Tiger Reserve. There were no visible injuries or signs of trauma. Another cub was found killed in the same way on April 23, and a third body, a female cub, was found on April 25. The cubs, who were between 12 and 18 months old, were first thought to have died of hunger until the autopsy of the third cub showed that it had serious breathing problems.
Because three tigers died in a row, forest officials put their mother, the tigress T-141, and her last living cub in quarantine on Sunday, April 26. Government officials said the tigress looked sick and weak when they brought her in, which meant she might not be able to feed her kids.
However, Prakash Kumar Verma, Deputy Director of Kanha Tiger Reserve, said that the tigress’s situation became very bad on Tuesday, April 28. She passed away early Wednesday morning, and her last cub died in the afternoon.
Verma told ThePrint, “The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, and while we can’t say for sure, we also can’t rule out Canine Distemper Virus.” There were sores in the tigers’ lungs and signs of asthma, which could mean they had CDV.
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What is distemper virus in dogs?
The American Veterinary Medical Association says that canine distemper virus is an illness that spreads easily and mostly affects dogs. It affects their mental, digestive, and breathing systems. The sickness often gets to other wild animals, like cats, through dogs. When an animal gets CDV, it can weaken its immune system and kill it in the end.
A wildlife campaigner from the area, Ajay Dubey, said, “If this is true, it will be the first time in more than ten years that the canine distemper virus is affecting Kanha’s tigers.” “It’s been a while since I saw or heard of and CDV case here.”
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has put out several warnings about how CDV can hurt tigers and how to stop it from spreading in India’s tiger parks. People who touch loose dogs, cats, or horses can get the virus. The NTCA says that any stray animals within 5 km of a tiger reserve must be protected against the canine distemper virus.
“The only way to keep tigers from getting this disease is to keep stray animals from spreading it.” “Once a tiger gets CDV, it can’t be cured, so it’s best to keep them from getting it in the first place,” Dubey said.
There have been times in the past when CDV spread in India’s animal areas, like in Gujarat’s Gir Lion Sanctuary. In 2018, about 28 lions in Gujarat died in just two weeks, which made the officials look into what happened. In the end, CDV was found to be what killed the person. A study published in 2019 found that it was easier for the virus to kill the lions in Gir because they lived in a small group.
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27 tigers die in MP
There have been 27 tiger deaths in Madhya Pradesh this year. The first one happened in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve on January 7. It was T-141 and her four cubs. However, Verma said that the canine distemper virus has not been thought to be the cause of any of the tigers’ deaths up until now.
“There are many reasons, including fights over territory, natural disasters, and even electric shocks that killed a few.” “CDV hasn’t been a reason yet,” Verma said.
According to the NTCA, any animal body that is thought to have been affected with CDV should be taken away right away and cleaned with bleach to get rid of any virus that is still present. At this point, all five tigers’ bodies have been taken out of Kanha and burned. Other tigers in the area probably couldn’t have caught it either, since they were from the same family.
“Tigers are very territorial.” Tigers don’t usually associate with each other unless they want to mate or fight. Because T-141 hasn’t shown any signs of either recently and all of her babies have died with her, Dubey said it’s not likely that the virus spread to other tigers in the area. “But we can’t say for sure what we think.” They still need to be careful, though.
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