Rhino death puts Delhi zoo authorites in a tizzy

The recent death of a four-year-old rhino Raja has once again raised fingers on the authorities at the Delhi zoo as four one horned rhinos have unnaturally died here in a decade.

Raja suspected to have died of deadly anthrax bacteria have put the zoo authorities on highest ever alert.

In 2000, two rhinos Dabbo and Mohini died unnaturally in a single day. The autopsy and subsequent viscera reports confirmed that the two animals had died off rabies. But how can an animal like Rhino contracted Rabies? Rabies usually spreads through animal bites.

But what was baffling the authorities then was that since the chances of any animal biting Rhino are remote as their skin is extremely hard and is not prone to animal bites. The zoo authorities closed the investigation file presuming that some Mongoose might have licked the mouth of the two Rhinos.

In the second incident, reported about four years ago, a Rhino died unnaturally at the Delhi zoo. The cause of death given then was snakebite as viscera sample had confirmed presence of snake poison in the samples. But the question is whether any preventive steps were taken to keep snakes away from the animal enclosures?

In the recent incident, junior Raja, just four-year-old died of a painful and untimely death. According to zoo officials, rhino’s life span is between 30 to 40 years. Highly placed sources in zoo said, “Whether Raja died of anthrax or some other bacteria is not important. What matters most is the need of a high level probe as to how such a deadly bacteria reached animal enclosures.”

While the blood sample reports of the rhino are still awaited, proactive preventive steps are being taken by the Delhi Zoo authorities to deal with further spread of bacteria, which is believed to be anthrax.

The zoo authorities have indented over 1000 doses of Anthrax vaccine from southern India and the shipment is expected to reach Delhi this afternoon.

The chief medical officer of the zoo, Panneer Salvam said, “Once we receive the Indian Veterinary Institute report and if blood samples test positive for Anthrax, we will vaccinate all zoo animals to contain the spread of decease.”

When asked as to what was the need to rush in the supply of vaccine, he said, “We can not take any chances.” The zoo staff, who were actively involved or anyway had gone near the dead Rhino are being kept under observation and the place where Rhino was kept has been declared out of bound for the staff as well as for the general public.

Zoo staff has been deployed in protective gear for spraying disinfectants and fly-traps have been put in place to trap potential carriers of the bacteria.

This all is being done even when the zoo authorities have received a negative Anthrax report from a private laboratory where they had sent the blood sample of the animal.

4-year-old male Rhino, Junior Raja had reported to have bled from the ears and nostrils that led zoo authorities to suspect that he might have contracted anthrax , a deadly bacterial disease.

A team of experts from the National Centre for Disease Control today visited the zoo on and looked for any symptoms of the presence of anthrax in the 22 members of the cleaning staff.

As a preventive measure, the authorities have put all other animals on antibiotics as a "prophylactic measure."