Killer viruses kill last surviving tiger cub in Madhya Pradesh
BHOPAL: All three orphaned Royal Bengal Tiger cubs, raised by a toy tigress since the electrocution of their mother on January 19, died on Wednesday morning due to the killer lepto and parvo viruses in Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh tiger reserve.
The surviving cub, over four-months old, breathed its last at the tiger reserve in Umaria district at 10 am, bringing the toll to three cubs in five days. While the first cub died on April 22 night, the second cub died the next afternoon.
"Our team of vets tried their best to save the trio, but owing to compromised immunity-dearth of antibodies owing to low mother's feed, the treatment failed to deliver desired results against the twin viruses that generally infect canines and cats," said Bandhavgarh tiger reserve director Mridul Pathak.
Though the death of the trio, aged below two years, is not officially included in the list of tiger fatalities, adding it would bring tiger tolls in MP to 52 since January 2015, and 41 tiger deaths since January 2016 to April 2017.
Of this, 11 tigers died in 2015, which rose to 30 in 2016 fell to 11 since January, 2017. In April this year, seven tigers- including four cubs aged between four months and a year- have died.
As per the 2014 census of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), MP was home to 308 tigers, coming second after Uttarakhand with 340 tigers.
Meanwhile, NTCA representatives are at the Bandhavgarh tiger reserve after the cub-deaths. The trio died within a span of five days at the reserve, known for the highest density of tigers, with 80-plus big cats in the country.
“We’re sending blood samples of all the three dead tiger cubs to Chennai for advanced tests, including DNA testing to develop a proper treatment protocol to shield other tiger cubs against the killer lepto-parvo virus attack, which causes internal bleeding and multiple organ failure,” said Mridul Pathak.