Anthrax, elephant - India (Kerala)

International Society for Infectious Diseases
<http://www.isid.org>

Source: Times of India [edited]
< http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1991935.cms>

The Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala's Idukki district has been hit by
an anthrax scare after preliminary tests on a dead elephant showed it
had the disease, officials said. The elephant died at the reserve on
10 Sep 2006 and samples of its blood sent to the Centre for
Infectious Diseases at Thiruvananthapuram had tested positive for
anthrax. Some more tests are being done and results are expected
within 5 days, Padma Mohanty, the divisional forest officer [DFO]of
the reserve said.

She rejected reports that some more animals in the reserve had died
of anthrax in the past 5 days. A sambar deer died on Wednesday
following a miscarriage and a wild bison found dead near the Mangla
Devi temple had died due to natural causes.

As a precautionary measure, authorities have decided to vaccinate all
cattle in the fringe areas of the reserve in Kerala and Tamil Nadu,
Mohanty said. The DFO of Theni has also been advised. Checkposts have
been informed to stop any cattle without ear-tags from entering the
reserve and a crisis management team has been formed, officials said.


Kerala, for some reason, though it has anthrax regularly in certain
pockets, like Kodungallur and Mullakkara in Thrissur district and
some areas of Palakkad district, somehow these reports never reach
Delhi and are therefore missing from India's annual reports to OIE,
Paris. The local authorities are wise to vaccinate the cattle in
surrounding areas, not only because there may be other but undeclared
outbreaks, but because folk regularly take their stock to graze
inside national parks and reserves. On another topic -- and without
questioning Dr. Padma Mohanty in any way -- I can only speculate what
"natural causes" might be for an Indian bison. A good pathology
examination question?

For a map showing the location of Idukki, go to:
<http://www.fallingrain.com/world/IN/13/Idukki.html>
< http://encarta.msn.com/map_701549185/Idukki.html>