Outbreak of bovine tuberculosis

Kruger National Park has been hit by an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis the SABC news reported today.

Its website said blood samples taken from buffalo near the Limpopo river confirmed the disease had spread around the entire park.

Initially, only buffalo were thought to be infected but other animals, including lions and leopards, had also beendiagnosed with the disease.

SA free range lion population, was last estimated at 3000 animals living mostly in the ecosystem around the Kruger Park among those at risk. Bovine tuberculosis has been a threat for some time, this disease was probably introduced to SA through domestic cattle brought in by European settlers at the end of the 18th century.

Bovine tuberculosis also afflicts animals in the Serengeti, TB isn't as important an issue there. TB is a bigger problem in Kruger than elsewhere, it is still not clear that the disease is as devastating as people originally claim.

Diseases can have a disastrous effect on the few large lion populations left in Africa. Serengeti lions were hard-hit by canine distemper in 1997, resulting in the loss of one-third of the resident lion population. Botswana, 90% of the free-range lions studied by The Okavango Lion Conservation Project are infected with FIV, the feline equivalent of human HIV, which can be deadly in a population that is under stress. The Kruger National park population in South Africa is suffering from a serious outbreak of bovine tuberculosis right now.

About 10,000-15,000 free-range African lions remain, down from about 50,000 a decade ago. African lions are now listed as Endangered.

"The Wildlife Of Today Is Not Ours To Dispose of as We Please.

We Have It in Trust, And Must Account for It To Those Who Come After."

[RermAnaenia]

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