Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 October 2023 | 15(10): 24116–24119

 

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8699.15.10.24116-24119

#8699 | Received 18 August 2023 | Final received 07 September 2023 | Finally accepted 29 September 2023

 

 

First photographic evidence of mange manifestation in Panna Tiger Reserve, India

 

Supratim Dutta 1   & Krishnamurthy Ramesh 2

 

1,2 Wildlife Institute of India, Post Box #18, Chandrabani, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India.

2 Faculty of Forestry, Forest Science Centre, 2424 Main Mall, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, V6T 1Z4, Canada.

1 supratim@wii.gov.in, 2 ramesh@wii.gov.in (corresponding author)

 

 

Editor: L.A.K. Singh, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.           Date of publication: 26 October 2023 (online & print)

 

Citation: Dutta, S. & K. Ramesh (2023). First photographic evidence of mange manifestation in Panna Tiger Reserve, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 15(10): 24116–24119. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8699.15.10.24116-24119

 

Copyright: © Dutta & Ramesh 2023. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.  JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: This research was funded by Madhya Pradesh Forest Department (MPFD) and National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) (No. WII/KR/PROJECT/PTRP/2013-14/012 (B), and National Water Development Agency (NDWA) No. WII/KR/PROJECT/PLMP/2017-18/F(1).

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: We would like to express our deep gratitude to the director, dean, and research coordinator of the Wildlife Institute of India for the opportunity to undertake the study. We are thankful to the field directors of PTR, Mr K.S. Bhadoria, and the veterinary officer Dr Sanjeev Kumar Gupta for their continuous support and encouragement.

 

 

Abstract: We report the first ever photographic evidence of mange-infested Golden Jackal Canis aureus from Panna Tiger Reserve, central India. The infected animals were photo-captured during the ongoing camera trap sampling in 2019 as a part of a long-term study on the ecology of reintroduced tigers and co-predators. This new record triggers wildlife health and monitoring issues and, subsequently, the importance of restricting the disease outbreak and treatment measures among other associated species within the protected area.

 

Keywords: Canis aureus, carnivore, disease, Golden Jackal, Madhya Pradesh, Mange, Vindhya Hills.

 

 

 

Sarcoptic mange is a commonly widespread and highly contagious skin disease found in wild mammals (McCarthy et al. 2004; Currier et al. 2011). The microscopic mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, is the causative agent that infests the skin of its host epidermis by burrowing tunnels (Fuller 2013). Females lay eggs there; subsequently, nymph starts to burrow new tunnels by cutting, secreting, and infesting the epidermal skin (Arlian et al. 1984, 1989), resulting in uncontrolled itching, hair loss, erythema (redness of the skin due to inflammation), and secondary skin infection, which may further lead to death of the host animal (Radi 2004; Oleaga et al. 2008; Nakagawa et al. 2009). These epizootics have been reported in various host species and well documented in Europe, America, Australia, Africa and Asia (Zumpt & Ledger 1973; Mӧrner 1992; Kraabøl et al. 2015; Fraser et al. 2016; Old et al. 2018; Niedringhaus et al. 2019). The mite spreads from infested animals to a new host through both direct (rubbing) and indirect contact by sharing common dens and resting places (Devenish-Nelson et al. 2014; Almberg et al. 2015; Ezenwa et al. 2016); moreover, transmission from adult to offspring also occurs (Fthenakis et al. 2001).

Mange is well-documented for domestic animals, though limited knowledge is available for wild animals, especially in the Indian subcontinent. In India, the infestation of mange is common in domestic animals (Chhabra & Pathak 2011) such as cats (Sivajothi & Reddy 2015), goats (Sreenivasan & Rizvi 1946), and cattle (Tikaram & Ruprah 1986; Gill et al. 1989). Sarcoptic mange was also found in pigs in India (Das et al. 2010; Laha 2015). Earlier, mange-infested Golden Jackal was documented in western India (Dubey et al. 2016).

 

Study Area and Methods

The study was carried out in Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR), situated in the Vindhyan hill range, under biogeographic province 6A Deccan Peninsula – Central Highlands (Rodgers et al. 2002). PTR spreads over 1,574 km2 area with two distinct administrative units; core zone (542 km2) and buffer zone (1,032 km2), and covers Panna, Chhatarpur and Damoh districts. PTR is categorized as tropical dry-deciduous forests (Champion & Seth 1968); and Teak Tectona grandis, Tendu Diospyros melanoxylon, Khair Acacia catechu, and Kardhai Anogeissus pendula are the major dominated trees in this landscape. Tiger is the apex predator in this ecosystem, while Leopard Panthera pardus represents a co-predator. The forest carries a good number of other carnivores like Indian Wolf Canis lupus, Striped Hyena Hyaena hyaena, Asiatic Wild Dog Cuon alpinus, Golden Jackal Canis aureus, Indian Fox Vulpes bengalensis, Jungle Cat Felis chaus, Asiatic Wildcat Felis silvestris, and Rusty Spotted Cat Prionailurus rubiginosus. Chital Axis axis, Sambar Rusa unicolor, and Wild Boar Sus scrofa are the major prey species, followed by Nilgai Boselaphus tragocamelus, Chinkara Gazella bennettii, and Chousingha Tetracerus quadricornis. The core area is highly protected, while the buffer area of PTR holds 63 villages, most of it being a human-dominated landscape.

We deployed a pair of automated camera traps in 2 km2 grid network. A total of 476 and 338 stations were active during the winter (survey period January 2019 to March 2019) and summer (survey period May 2019 to June 2019) season of 2019 (Figure 1) as a part of the study of monitoring released tiger and associated carnivore populations in PTR. The camera trap stations were active for at least 30 days on a 24-hour basis to ensure demographic closure (Kendall 1999), and traps were checked at an interval of 5–7 days.

 

Results

A total of 476 (14,500 trap nights) and 338 (11,719 trap nights) camera trap stations yielded 2,145 and 757 independent captures of Golden Jackals during winter and summer, respectively. Among those, we found three independent captures of Golden Jackals from two different locations, both in summer and winter. The photo-captured stations were 5.5 km and 2.52 km away (linear distance) from the village during winter, while in summer, the locations were 4.06 km and 500 m away from the nearby village. The captured individuals (Image 1) had severe erythema, alopecia (excessive hair/ fur loss) and infection (Bornstein et al. 1995; Nimmervoll et al. 2013).

 

Discussion and Management Implication

The mite, Sarcoptes scabiei, was intentionally introduced during the early 20th century to reduce and control the Wolf and Coyote population in the USA; it was first reported in wolves in Yellowstone National Park in January 2007. Mange-infested animal death is common (Wydeven et al. 2003; Smith & Almberg 2007) and can spread quickly in the population (Almberg et al. 2012). Therefore, identification of affected individuals is necessary and proper treatment should be provided (Rowe et al. 2019).  Mange-infested jackal has the potential to infect other jackals and other species through direct and indirect contact (Alasaad et al. 2012; Valldeperes et al. 2021). Affected individuals are genetically compromised, which may lead to severe detrimental effects in population level (DeCandia et al. 2021). Since transmission may occur from human to domestic animals or domestic to wild animals; thus, the ‘One Health’ approach should be executed to monitor human-domestic-wildlife health (Lerner & Berg 2015; Mackenzie & Jeggo 2019).

A tiger had died in PTR due to canine distemper virus (CDV; Shetty 2019). Thereafter, a vaccination drive was implemented for domestic animals to restrict the transmission of CDV from domestic animals to wild animals (Nayak et al. 2020). Taking clue from our present observations, we strongly recommend that PTR must adopt a wildlife disease surveillance strategy to reduce and restrict any pathogen transmission. Routine monitoring of the health of domestic and wild population, where feasible (including blood sample collection) and water quality analysis of waterholes should be exercised. Usage of the thermal camera can play an important role in identifying and monitoring the affected individuals, as they emit severe heat loss signatures due to extensive alopecia.

For images - - click here for full PDF

 

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