Sloth bear dies of suspected TB

A 10-year-old male sloth bear, David, succumbed to suspected tuberculosis at the Bear Rehabilitation and Rescue Centre in Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP) on Sunday morning.

According to Dr Arun A Sha, wildlife veterinary at BRRC, David was under treatment for the past six months.

“Of late, his food habits had become irregular and he completely refused food for the last three days.

The postmortem report reveals that the tissues in its lungs were damaged and its lungs had swelled like a balloon. Its condition was critical since he was suffering from the infection for a long time,” he said.

This is the third bear death at BRRC, which has reported suspected human tuberculosis among the animals since July, this year.

The veterinarians are unable to diagnose the infection among the bears and it was only after their deaths that they found them infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB).

Refusal to eat was the only symptom that the vets were able to diagnose among the inactive bears at the rescue centre, Dr Arun said.

BBP, along with Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAH&VB), has started collecting samples of all the bears at the rescue centre.

The bear’s blood, sputum, urine and stool samples are being sent for tests at IAH &VB. At present, three other bears, Kanishka, Danny and Aman, are also refusing food.

Dr Arun said that they have discontinued administration of anti-TB drugs for the fear that these animals might develop resistance to the infection.

They are on a diet of ragi porridge, papaya or watermelon, and vitamin supplements.
These animals are attended with special care to keep them stress-free, since they have been ‘tortured’ throughout their lives by kalandars.