A two-month-old leopard cub infected with Canine Distemper Virus (CDV) died during treatment on Tuesday, prompting the forest department to issue an advisory aimed at strengthening disease surveillance, early detection, and veterinary response mechanisms to prevent the spread of the infection among wildlife.
The cub died while undergoing treatment at Veterinary College in Mhow. Following a postmortem examination, its last rites were performed on Tuesday evening in accordance with prescribed wildlife protocols, said Barwani Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Ashish Bansod.
The cub was rescued on June 8 from an agricultural field in the village Golata under the Rajpur forest range of Barwani district. Forest officials initially kept the cub at the rescue site for three consecutive nights in an effort to reunite it with its mother. However, the mother failed to return.
As the cub began exhibiting symptoms of Canine Distemper Virus, officials discontinued the reunion attempts and initiated treatment under veterinary supervision. When its condition deteriorated on Sunday night, it was shifted to Veterinary College in Mhow for advanced care, where it later succumbed to the infection.
Search for Mother and Siblings
Bansod said forest teams were continuing their search for the cub's mother and two other siblings using thermal drones and other tracking methods. The DFO said that the area, comprising the Narmada river belt and adjoining agricultural fields, is not particularly difficult terrain, and under normal circumstances, locating the mother leopard and her cubs would not have been challenging. However, neither have the animals been reported hunting in the area nor have they been sighted by local villagers, leading officials to believe that they have moved a considerable distance away.
He said that the likelihood of the remaining cubs being infected with Canine Distemper Virus appears to be low, as they have not been found in the vicinity. Bansod said that it was possible that the deceased cub may have come into contact with an animal infected with the canine virus, resulting in the infection.
Forest Department Advisory
Following the death, the forest department on Tuesday issued an advisory based on guidelines from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and the Madhya Pradesh forest department. The advisory directs veterinary authorities to intensify monitoring, strengthen disease detection systems, and undertake preventive measures against CDV and other diseases affecting susceptible wild animals.
Canine Distemper Virus is a highly contagious disease primarily found in dogs but is also known to infect several wild carnivores, including leopards, tigers, and other big cats. Authorities have also called for greater awareness and coordination between forest and veterinary departments to contain any potential outbreak.
