Three white tigress cubs die at Lahore Zoo

Initial reports suggest they had caught Panleukopenia virus

LAHORE: Sunday was a sad day for Lahore Zoo as three cubs of a white tigress died in a single day.

According to initial reports, the cubs died because of having the Panleukopenia virus. The three cubs were aged above two months and since they were born they were being fed artificial milk because their mother had abandoned them.

Sources at the Lahore Zoo said that the white tigress had given birth to four cubs, one of them died shortly after birth, while the other three were abandoned by their mother and the tigress did not feed them milk. Therefore, the administration, started nurturing these newborns, but they died after two months.

A veterinary doctor at Lahore Zoo said that the Panleukopenia virus is common in dogs and cats these days. The animals infected by this virus stop their food intake, suffer from frequent fever, loose motions and vomiting, which weakens their immune system and causes death. Just as the cubs caught the virus, they were being provided treatment by the Lahore Zoo administration, but their immune system was already weakened as their mother didn’t breastfed them. Therefore, the virus attack proved fatal for them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2019.