Experts express concerns over death of cub and tigress at Tata zoo

Chief wildlife warden writes to zoo director

Jamshedpur, March 28 : Experts have expressed concern over death of a cub and a tigress within a span of one week at the Tata Steel Zoological Park (TSZP). As the forest department announced investigation into the cause of the deaths, Chief wildlife warden,L.R. Singh meanwhile, has sent a letter addressed to Tata zoo director that death of tigers was a serious cause of concern.

The letter has said that Babesiosis was a serious disease which can be diagnosed by microscopic examination smear and ELISA and antigesic-based PCR test facilities at Centre for Wildlife diseases at Bhubaneswar Veterinary College in Dr NiranjanSahoo�s lab.

Furthermore, Singh has also said in the letter timely diagnoses could not be done this led to the deaths. In the postmortem report, the zoo has mentioned suspected Babesiosis in the second death of female tiger, the letter adds.

A seven-month-old female tiger cub died of Babesiosis on March 18 and the tigress Ahana succumbed to the same disease on Sunday.

The female tigress Ahana, aged three and half years, died in the Zoological Park on the night of March 25. The sub-adult female tigress Ahana was born to Shanti and Raghav on August 28, 2014 at the Tata Steel Zoological Park.

Ahana had gone off feed since the last one week. She was put under symptomatic treatment for Babesiosis, but her condition had started deteriorating in the last 2-3 days and she succumbed to the disease.

The postmortem was carried out by a team of veterinarians Dr. Debashish Dev TVO Adityapur, Dr. M. Palit, Dy. Director cum Vet. Officer and V.K. Singh, Consultant Vet., Tata Zoo in presence of Forest Department officials Saba Alam Ansari, DFO and Sushil Oraon, ACF, Jamshedpur Forest Division. BipulChakrabarty, Director and S. K. Mahato, Curator, Tata Steel Zoological Park were present.
There are five tigers at the Tata Zoo, two of which have not caught the disease, and three who are well on the road to recovery.

While the 7-month-old female tiger cub was born on August 23 last year and was put under symptomatic treatment for Babesiosis. Babesiosis is a disease of cattle and other livestock, transmitted by the bite of ticks. It affects the red blood cells and causes the passing of red or blackish urine. The disease is caused by protozoans of the genus Babesia, phylum Sporozoa.