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(10-17-2019, 08:46 AM)Rishi Wrote: CDV virus found in 68 lions and 6 leopards
Paul John | TNN | Updated: Oct 12, 2019

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AHMEDABAD: The canine distemper virus (CDV) infection which killed 27 lions in September-October last year along with babesia infection was detected in a total of 68 lions and six leopards too, according to research by National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. The research paper, recently published in the US-based Center for Disease Control (CDC) newsletter, says that samples from 316 lions and 52 leopards were tested.

Interestingly, contrary to earlier belief that the CDV virus found in Gir may be an East African strain which wiped off lions in Serengeti, Tanzania, the NIV researchers, who studied the genome sequencing of CDV virus, say it is similar to proposed India-1/Asia-5 strain found in Indian stray dogs.
"We observed 95.8% to 96.8% nucleotide similarity for the 'H' gene region of CDV sequences from the Gir outbreak with the proposed India-1/Asia-5 strain," claimed the research team led by director of ICMR-NIV, D T Mourya and his collegues P D Yadav, S Mohandas, A Shete-Aich and R R Sahay. Among co-authors were a several Gujarat forest officials including R F Kadiwar and M K Vala of Sakkarbaug Zoo in Junagadh, Department of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Gandhinagar, A K Saxena and P Purushothama.

The paper proposes vaccination of lions for CDV. "CDV is prevalent in dog population in India and free ranging dog population often poses a threat of virus transmission to wildlife. Vaccination is an option", the NIV paper says.

Back in September 2018, ICMR-NIV Pune had received blood and ocular (eyes), nasal, and rectal swab specimens from 229 wild and 87 captive lions. They had also got visceral organs, including lung, liver, heart, and kidney, from three dead lions for investigations.
Of the 229 wild lions, 20 had shown clinical CDV infection signs, including dullness, lacrimation, cough, diarrhoea, and seizures. Two of the 87 captive lions showed lacrimation and respiratory distress. In all, 68 lion samples and six leopards had tested positive with CDV.


https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city...549175.cms

If that's not enough for Indian PM Modi and the State of Gujarat to change their aversion to shifting lions to Kuno-Palpur in Madhya Pradesh, before a disease like CDV or a closely related morbillivirus (which killed approximately 1000 Southeast African lions in the Serengeti (composed of Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya), which is much more than how many wild Asiatic lions are known to exist, about 650 as of 2017) or some other natural disaster like a fire (bearing in mind what happened in South America that is estimated to have killed at least 500 jaguars) can wipe out the lion in Gujarat State, then what is? Reply