What makes captive animals fall sick? Vet students to seek answers

Hassan: What causes animals in captivity to fall sick?
Are environmental factors such as temperature, sunlight and humidity responsible?

These and many more questions are being studied by research students of the Veterinary College in  Hebbal, Bengaluru, who have been hired for the job by the  Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens in Mysuru, which hopes to improve its animal health care based on their findings.

“We treat captive animals whenever they fall sick, but we wanted an indepth study to know exactly what causes them to fall ill. We are not sure whether environmental factors are responsible for  diseases in captive animals, especially among  elephants and captive turtles,” said  zoo officials, explaining that once the study was done, they would be able to take  steps to improve the health care facilities for the animals in their care.

The zoo, which has nine Asian elephants, hopes the study will throw light on the gastro- intestinal parasites that often make them sick, and also seasonal variations, among other factors responsible for  ailments among the jumbos. The research will cover shell disease among turtles and  epidemical and therapeutic diseases among snakes as well.

Assistant director, Ramesh says  animals live longer in captivity than in the wild because of the good medical care and  food they are provided.

 “The  successful breeding of animals in captivity is an indication of  how well they are cared for, “ he added.  Just recently, a giraffe calf was born at the zoo, which has seen tigers too successfully breed in the past.