‘Vaccination of dogs was faulty’

A leading veterinarian has raised questions on the efficacy of vaccination of stray dogs carried out by Etawah Lion Safari officials in April this year.

A three-day vaccination drive was carried out after it was found that the death of four lions in two years was caused by canine distemper virus (CDV), whose carriers are mostly dogs.

Apart from four lions, five cubs had also died in the Safari in the same period. Another lion Girishma is battling the CDV virus.

While special teams sent in from Kanpur had vaccinated around 165 dogs with Magavac-6 and Canishot K5 vaccine, veterinarian Dr SK Paul claims the exercise was a waste as no booster dose was given in two months.

These vaccines are considered multivalent and give immunity to dogs from different types of diseases,, including the CDV. “The vaccines will not have any effect till the dogs aren’t injected at every three weeks. It doesn’t matter if the vaccine was being given to a puppy or a grown up, the process will remain unchanged,” said Paul.

Also, while the dogs were given 112 dose of Magavac and 52 doses of Canishot, Paul insisted only half of it should have been given. Secondly, the dogs were not vaccinated for rabies, confirmed an RTI reply by Etawah’s district veterinary office to Paul.

“The two vaccines would help control seven types of diseases but not the rabies,” said Paul while calling the entire drive a sham.

Incidentally, Paul was the first one to have claimed that Safari’s first casualty lion Vishnu had CDV. The Safari administration went into denial mode. He even sent mails to the state government and the Safari but was rebuked. However, he was vindicated when report of Vishnu’s autopsy, conducted at IVRI Bareilly, confirmed the presence of CDV in the lymph node.