Bengaluru : Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) is witnessing Shocking back-to-back deaths of spotted deer (chital) at its animal quarantine facility. Even after stepping up biosecurity measures to contain further spread of Feline panleukopenia (FP) virus among it big cats. This has been happening over the past one week. Adding to the list of growing animal causalities at the park, 15 deer have died due to gastrointestinal problems cardiac arrest and shock, zoo officials said. Interestingly, all the chital deer that were housed in the quarantine facility were rescued from the city hospital a month ago.
The successive deaths of leopard cubs and now the sudden death of spotted deer have caught the government’s attention. A day after the chief wildlife warden sought a report on the infection and status of other animals from BBP officials. Forest Minister Eshwar B Khandre visited the park and reviewed the situation. Directing forest officials to work in tandem with veterinarians and other technical personnel, the minister ordered “ High alert in all zoos of Karnataka” given the FP virus infection among domesticated cats.
Caught off guard by sudden turn of events over the last 15 days Minister Khandre visited the rescue centre, safari and elephant habitat at BBP along with senior officials of the forest department and Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK). Subsequently, he held a meeting with BBP officials.
Speaking to media Minister said, “Zoo are generally the most secure conservation area. But the appalling number of deaths in the past few days at BBP is indeed shocking,. I have also directed zoo officials to immediately flag any such abnormal incidents to higher officials and the state government rather than deal with it at the zoo level on their own” he added.
Minister also directed ZAK officials to vaccinate wild cats, especially cubs, in all other zoos .” I was told by officials that chital deer (spotted deer) that were rescued from a city hospital hae died due to infighting , stress and liver cirrhosis. Luckily, they were kept in quarantine. I have also directed officials to ensure that no officials or staff from Bannerghatta zoo visits any other zoos of Karnataka till containment of the infection,” he said.
