Mumbai, Oct 29 (PTI) In a worrying discovery, rabies infection has been confirmed in the samples of one of the five golden jackals who all died separately within a month in Mumbai, a forest department official said.
After back-to-back deaths of five golden jackals from the same area, the brain samples of the last dead animal were sent for a rabies test, which returned positive, the official said.
Two carcasses of golden jackals were found by the Mumbai Range of Thane Territorial Wing of the Forest Department this month and three live jackals were rescued.
The live animals were handed over to Mumbai-based RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare) for treatment and rehabilitation, said the official.
The first live animal died before treatment. Another golden jackal was treated and stabilised by veterinarians, however, it died within hours of the rescue. The third one died a day after it was rescued from Chembur, showing unusual behaviour, said the forest official.
All the carcasses were handed over to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) for postmortem. The brain samples of the last dead animal were extracted and sent to the Mumbai Veterinary College for testing for rabies infection. The test returned positive, said the official. PTI ZA NSK
