Eight Asiatic lions in Hyderabad zoo test Covid positive
May 04, 2021
At least eight Asiatic lions at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad have tested positive for Covid 19, forcing the authorities to close the zoo.
ICMR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology will investigate how the lions contracted the virus and the source of infection. The State government has decided to close all zoologcal parks, including Nehru Zoological park, other national parks and various wildlife sanctuaries in Telangana until further orders, following a directive from the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
After veterinarians in the park detected symptoms in the lions such as loss of appetite and nasal discharge, their samples were sent to CCMB-LACONES, and the results came out positive. They are now recovering well and analysis of samples reveals the infection was not caused by any variant of concern.