LUCKNOW: While the instances of coronavirus infection in animals are coming out, death of 10 monkeys in the last four days in a village in Shamli district has sent the district administration into a tizzy.
As per the sources, the monkeys had developed pneumonia-like symptoms. The samples of two dead monkeys have been sent to Bareilly’s Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) to ascertain the cause of their death.
Meanwhile, the district administration started screening the villagers. According to official sources, while over 300 people of Pawasa village were screened and sanitized, a 45-year-old man was quarantined and his sample collected for test after he developed COVID-19-like symptoms.
Sambhal Chief Medical Officer Dr Amita Singh confirmed that five teams of the Health officials had screened 330 people in the village.
Sambhal Divisional Forest Officer Devendra Kumar Chaturvedi said that an autopsy report of a monkey reflected pneumonia as the cause of death. According to Chaturvedi, all 10 carcasses were found on the road near a pond in the village. Two of the carcasses were spotted on Friday.
The district administration on Friday sent another carcass to IVRI for autopsy. Sambhal District Magistrate Avinash Krishna Singh said the administration had decided to screen people living close to the pond as a precaution against the COVID-19. He said so far officials had not found any evidence linking deaths to
coronavirus.
IVRI director RK Singh said the autopsy reports were being prepared, but refused to reveal details.