The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Zoo closed indefinitely

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Sunday, Aug 05, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Zoo closed indefinitely

Staff Reporter

Culling of wild boars begins

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Government has decided to close indefinitely, from Sunday, the city zoo where authorities have been unable to bring the Foot-and-Mouth Disease (FMD) under control.

The Government has also given zoo authorities the go ahead to cull 19 wild boars, two of which have been infected with the FMD virus. The culling of the boars began at 10 p.m. with the zoo veterinarian C. S. Jayakumar administering an intra-muscular injection of Thiopentone sulphate solution to the boars. By 10.30 p.m., three boars had been put to sleep.

The decisions to close the zoo and cull the boars were taken after a meeting of the technical committee set up to help the zoo tide over the FMD situation. These decisions were more or less inevitable following the death of a wild boar due to FMD on Wednesday evening.

The death of a Nilgai on Saturday morning, also due to FMD, provided an additional impetus to the technical committee to arrive at these decisions.

Including the Nilgai the zoo has so far lost 25 animals to the FMD virus.

According to zoo officials, the zoo will remain closed at least for three weeks now to ensure that the virus is brought fully under control.

After the first FMD-induced death at the city zoo on July 3, the technical committee had recommended the closure of the zoo on July 8. The officials claimed that they had carried out an intensive sanitation drive inside the sprawling campus. Sixteen days later the committee recommended that the zoo be reopened to the public.

Sources in the zoo say they cannot rule out the possibility that more species of animals have been infected by the FMD virus.

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