Simian deaths cause panic in Sambhal village
BAREILLY : The death of 15 monkeys over the past two days in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district has led to panic, as the villagers suspected that they were dying due to Coronavirus.
However, the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, (IVRI), where the body of one of the monkeys was sent for a postmortem examination, ruled out any cause for alarm. “We received the body of a female monkey.
Prima facie, the investigations have revealed bacterial infection in the left liver and kidney of the monkey. This could be probably because the monkey drank contaminated water or ate something on which the farmers had sprayed insecticide,” said Dr Abhijit Pawde of the IVRI. He said a detailed investigation would take time as the institute did not have sufficient staff because of the lockdown.
The IVRI findings have been corroborated by the findings of other veterinarians, who had said that the deaths were due to some poisonous substance consumed by the simians. The death of the simians had caused panic in the village as most villagers suspect that they died due to coronavirus.
“We have just come to know that the virus can also affect animals and are afraid that it may soon spread to our livestock,” said Mukesh, a farmer of Panwasa village.
“The monkeys started dying from Monday. Around 25 to 30 other monkeys are still sick. When we saw this we informed the local vet Neeraj Gautam,” says Kumar Praveer, a resident of Bhatpura locality of the same village, where the deaths took place.
“We did a thermal scan of the sick monkeys. Their body temperature was normal, which could not explain the cause of the disease,” said Gautam.
He said that the lungs of the dead monkeys were swollen and their body temperature showed they had a high fever.
Bareilly chief veterinary officer Vinod Kumar said, “I have formed a team of veterinarians. They have visited the spot.” He said there was a mucus discharge from the noses of the monkeys and their body temperature was also very low.