Tigress dies in Vizag zoo

By Our Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM, MARCH 9. A three-year-old Royal Bengal tigress, Sumitra, brought to the Indira Gandhi Zoological Park here from Nandankanan Zoo in Orissa and operated upon for ventral hernia on February 13, died on Friday of dysnoea - an abdominal respiratory problem. Post-mortem showed acute lung inflammation.

The tigress which, according to the zoo veterinarian, Mr. Srinivas, had completely recovered from the major operation last month, was quite alert and eating properly till four days ago, but suddenly lost appetite. It stopped eating normal food - beef - and was surviving on 10 per cent of its normal quantum of food.

On Thursday afternoon its condition turned critical and it was given intra-venous fluids throughout the night, but died in the early hours of Friday, said the doctor. The Zoo Curator, Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, said they had taken the opinion of the Hyderabad Zoo doctor, Mr. Navin, and Mr. Jayaprakasha Rao, Joint Director Animal Husbandry, (who had conducted the operation on the feline along with other doctors), but going by the symptoms they had lost hope on Thursday evening. The animal was shifted from Nandankanan after the Trypanosomasis epidemic there last September, and it was vaccinated against the disease with `triquine'. Hence the possibility of its dying with `tryps' was ruled out, said the curator. The symptoms of `tryps' - convulsions, cornea opacity and temperature - were also not noticed.

The post-mortem on the animal was conducted in the afternoon and samples were collected for histopathological examination to be conducted in Hyderabad, which would conclusively establish the cause of death. ``One more reason for ruling out `tryps' is the non-existence of tsy-tsee flies and wet moats, which could have contributed to this,'' he said. The zoo conducted blood smear tests for all tigers and lions last October after the Nandankanan Zoo incident for likely affliction of the disease, but all tests were negative. Now the focus is on the health of the other Royal Bengal tiger, Navin Nissan, brought from Nandankanan along with Sumitra. Navin was moving actively in its enclosure and was healthy, said Mr. Srinivas.

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Section  : Southern States
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