India is scrambling to protect its beleaguered tiger
population after several big cats tested positive for a virus common
among dogs but deadly to other carnivores, experts said.
In the
last year, canine distemper virus has killed at least four tigers and
several other animals across northern and eastern India, according to
Rajesh Gopal of the government's National Tiger Conservation Authority.
The
revelation is bad news for wild tigers — already endangered by rampant
poaching and shrinking habitat as India undergoes breakneck development
to accommodate the staggering growth of its 1.2 billion people. That
same economic development and population growth means more people — and
more dogs — are coming even closer to wildlife.
India will now
test every tiger carcass it finds for the virus, Gopal said, while
authorities also consider a massive campaign to vaccinate dogs against
canine distemper.
"We cannot vaccinate every dog, of course. But
even 50 percent of dogs in the zones around sanctuaries would help,"
Gopal said. He did not give details of the plans being considered. There
is no vaccine for big cats.
The cases being found across such a
huge swath of India, however, suggests the disease could already be
running in the wild, experts said, though they agree much more research
is needed.
"These are very disturbing finds," said Dr. A.K.
Sharma, head scientist at the Indian Veterinary Research Institute,
which performed the canine distemper lab tests. "The cases were quite
distant from each other, and the latest was an area where there are no
dogs. So it appears the virus is spreading."
Since two cubs tested
positive in a zoo in the Bihar state capital of Patna a year ago,
Sharma and his colleagues have found at least four more cases — a red
panda in the northeast state of Manipur, a wild tiger in West Bengal, a
zoo lion in Darjeeling and last month a wild tiger in the Dudhwa Tiger
reserve in Uttar Pradesh.
"In the last case, forest guards said they saw the animal in a confused state before it died," he said.
Experts
said there are likely more undetected cases, since testing for canine
distemper has not been routine and few animals that die in the wild are
ever found.
Canine distemper virus, a close relative of measles,
is associated mostly with domestic dogs though it has infected — and
ravaged — other carnivore populations.
It brought the U.S.
black-footed ferret to the brink of extinction in the late 1970s. In
Tanzania in 1994, an epidemic likely introduced by tourists' dogs wiped
out at least a third of the 3,000-strong African lion population in
Serengeti National Park.
The possibility of a disease like canine
distemper hitting the world's last population of wild Asiatic lions was a
major consideration in last year's Indian Supreme Court's decision
ordering Gujarat state to safeguard the species by transferring some
lions to a second, faraway sanctuary.
While dogs can often recover
from the disease, other animals including tigers, lions and leopards
suffer fever, seizures and delirium before they die. There is no known
cure.
Some experts said it was pointless to try to limit the
disease, given how closely millions of Indians live alongside wildlife.
Instead, the country should focus on other, proven threats like
poaching, prey loss to hunting and human encroachment into forests.
"Thinking
we can control this is totally unrealistic. We have to live with it
now, and assess whether it's really serious yet," said Ullas Karanth,
the Bangalore-based Asian science director of Wildlife Conservation
Society. "What South Africa has done, quarantining huge areas and
creating disease-free spaces in the wild, is not feasible here."
India
is home to more than half of the world's estimated 3,200 tigers. An
ongoing tiger census should give an updated count in a year. Despite
dozens of tiger reserves in place, their numbers have sunk from an
estimated 5,000-7,000 in the 1990s, when their habitat was more than
twice as large.
Illegal poaching remains a stubborn and serious
danger, with tiger parts fetching high black market prices due to demand
driven by traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Deforestation and
urban growth, meanwhile, bring the cats ever-closer to human
settlements — and into conflict with villagers who will hunt any wild
animals near their communities or livestock.
That tigers may now
face another threat from disease is alarming, said Thopsie Gopal, an
Indian expert in animal emerging infectious diseases who was not
involved in the test cases.
"This is a serious situation," said
Thopsie Gopal, who has no relation to Rajesh Gopal. "Maybe tigers are
eating infected dogs, or maybe it is spreading in the wild."
He
suggested India could resume its policy of vaccinating cattle against
rinderpest, another virus similar to canine distemper. Increasing
antibodies against rinderpest in the environment could help boost
defenses against canine distemper, he said. "It might be too late, but
might be worth trying," he said.
Indian experts also want to
search living tigers for natural antibodies that could be used in
creating a vaccine. But there are obvious challenges in capturing the
reclusive and dangerous nighttime predators for blood tests.
"It would take a lot of funding and a lot of manpower," Sharma said. "We'll see if the government agrees."
Today is - Appreciate A Dragon Day 
Believe
it or not, there have been many international incidents, alliances, and
cultural shifts that revolved around cakes, pies, and other assorted
sweet treats. Consider the case of Eamon de Valera, a caper that became a
fiction trope.
