The Bannerghatta Biological Park has come up with a solution to fight the bird flu outbreak by providing carnivores beef and lab rats.
Bangalore, April 11, 2018: The Bannerghatta Biological Park(BBP) has stopped feeding its carnivores their usual meal of chicken and eggs in response to the outbreak of bird flu. The animals will be fed beef and lab rats instead. The authorities feed around 700 Kg of beef and a dozen only a dozen of lab rats are feed to these animals.
Dr. Sujay C.S, a senior veterinarian at BBP said, “The sudden change in the diet of carnivores’ have put them under stress but they will manage to adjust with time. This is an important step to protect these animals from the bird flu outbreak. Once the situation is restored, we will hopefully provide them their favourite food again.”
In January the World Organisation for Animal Health said that there was an outbreak of the highly contagious H5N8 virus among birds near Bangalore. The virus is said to have killed nine of the 951 birds in December, while the rest were culled to prevent its spread.
Authorities of the BBP hope that this problem gets resolved as soon as possible because they do not want these animals to have a hard time in the zoo.
Dr. Nirupama Rao, another senior vet said that chicken, and eggs are the favourite food of the park’s jungle cats, wild dogs, owls, snakes etc. This type of diet is especially important when these animals are pregnant or in a vulnerable state.
Dr. Hiren Thakkar, owner of Sneh Pet Clinic said, “Such a step by the zoo authority is important and should be appreciated, our wild animals should be taken care of in any unfavourable situation.”
Dr. Madan Kompal, a Vet at Mysuru Zoo said,“The BBP should be very careful about the bird flu outbreak and should make necessary changes so that the animals could be safe from any bacterial infection.” He also appreciated the steps taken by BBP authority and hopes normalcy will be restored soon.
