ICAR ropes in Iit-roorkee to make COVID drug for animals

NEW DELHI: In an important development, the Bareillybased Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI) is working to develop a vaccine, diagnostic kits and study the transmission dynamics of coronavirus in pets and wild animals.

No animal species in India has been found COVID-19 positive so far but there have been reports of a tiger at Bronx zoo in New York and a few other pets - particularly cats and dogs - in Hong Kong testing positive for SARS-COV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 infection.

There have been reports of people abandoning their pets because of the corona scare.

According to IVRI director RK Singh, “The IVRI has decided to work on developing a vaccine for corona for domestic and wild animals. This is being done on the directives of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR). We are also planning to make diagnostic kits which can be used in the laboratory as well as the field.”

Notably, the IVRI is one of

There have been reports of people abandoning their pets because of the corona scare

the few institutes in the country which has been testing both human and animal samples for COVID-19.

According to Singh, in case coronavirus spreads among the domestic and wildlife species in the near future, the virus will undergo genetic changes to adapt better to these animals.

“Our efforts are also aimed at studying the transmission dynamics of SARS-COV-2 in domestic and wild animals and control its spread among them. For active monitoring, surveillance tools have to be developed - which include diagnostic kits,” Singh said.

The IVRI will be collaborating with Iit-roorkee on the project to find an effective antiviral drug against SARS-COV-2 under a special drive called ‘Intensification of Research in High Priority Area' (IRHPA).