CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu forest department is on its toes after two confirmed cases of deadly Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) disease were reported in the wild within the last few months. Recently, a jackal in Sivaganga and a leopard cub in Kanyakumari succumbed to the disease, forcing authorities to initiate precautionary measures.
During a District Forest Officers' meeting on Tuesday, a decision was taken to vaccinate the feral dogs inside the core, buffer zones and the fringe areas in all of the wildlife divisions across the state.
Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas R Reddy told The New Indian Express, "To start with, vaccination drives will be initiated in Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli and Thoothukudi districts where there is an enhanced threat. Subsequently, all other districts will be covered on priority basis. The vaccines will be purchased with forest department's funds and the drive will be executed in coordination with the animal husbandry department. In Kanyakumari, 600 feral dogs have already been vaccinated."
The CDV is prevalent in feral dogs and can easily spread into the wild. Tigers, leopards, civet cats, wild dogs (Dholes), sloth bears and jackals are all susceptible. Fortunately, wildlife has largely remained safe so far, but now with forest areas shrinking and wild animals venturing outside, the threat of this virus spreading has grown.
A TANUVAS official said CDV can be lethal with a fatality rate as high as 50% in adults and 80% in young animals. Death of lions in Gir forest in Gujarat stands testimony to this fact. In 2021, a lioness died of CDV in Vandalur zoo. In fatal cases involving CDV, the animal will typically have muscle twitching, seizures, lachrymation, strong respiratory, and digestive illness.
Taking proactive measures, in the last one week, around 500 feral dogs in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) were vaccinated with CDV vaccine in both core and buffer areas. MTR field director D Venkatesh and P Arunkumar, deputy director of MTR (Buffer Zone), arranged for the vaccines using the tiger foundation fund and engaged local NGO Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS) to carry out the drive.
Not just CDV, there are other virus infections like African swine fever, canine parvovirus, anthrax, foot and mouth disease and the recent emerging lumpy skin disease, which is wreaking havoc across the country including Tamil Nadu affecting large numbers of cattle. All these viral diseases are threatening to infect wild animals as the interaction between human and wildlife grows as tourism peaks in these ecologically sensitive habitats.
There was a major scare in MTR in 2022 when African swine fever outbreak took place. Around 30 wild boars died within a time span of 15 days. These were just known and recorded deaths. The mortality would be more. All the deaths happened in and around the tourism zone.
"Wild boars started dying from December 25, 2022 and with management intervention we were able to stop the deaths by January 9. But, by then, a significant prey base was swiped-out. On January 31, 2023, a half-eaten woman's body was found. Our investigation revealed it was the handy job of a 2-year-old tiger.
At that age, the tiger weans from the mother. It doesn't have the ability to catch fast runners like deer or big prey like guar. Wild boars are its preferred prey, but when not available, the women who went into the forest to pick some forest produce, become its easy prey unfortunately."
Till now, we are monitoring that tiger which shows no signs of a man-eater. At that time there was tremendous pressure on us to capture the tiger. This is a beautiful case study on how localised viral outbreaks can disturb the food chain and lead to dreadful consequences. So, it is pivotal to minimise the anthropogenic pressures in buffer areas, which act as shock-absorbers," an official told TNIE.
