Between September and October 2018, the Gir forest sanctuary – the only place to find the Asiatic lion in the wild today – lost nearly 25 of its most popular inhabitants. The death of lions is believed to have been caused by a potent combination of canine distemper virus and babesiosis, a disease caused by tick-borne parasites, according to government officials. The officials also said that the lions belonged to one pride. Following the deaths, 33 lions from the area were rescued, quarantined and vaccinated and kept under observation. Interestingly, answering a question at the legislative Assembly in early 2019, the Gujarat government said that over 200 lions had died in the Gir forest region in the previous two years (2017 and 2018).
Canine Distemper is a viral disease that is frequent in dogs, foxes, wolves, big cats and even primates. It is caused by a single-stranded RNA virus of the family Paramyxoviridae (the family of viruses causing measles, mumps and bronchiolitis in humans). It infects the spinal cord and brain and also the respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts. The virus is believed to have a 50% fatality rate in dogs.
In 1994, the CDV was responsible for an epidemic in the Serengeti region of Africa, where 1,000 lions died in three weeks. Its prevalence in India has not been studied and only a few reports are available regarding its detection in wild carnivores.
Picture Credit : Google