Bangalore: Techies to the rescue of Bannerghatta's big cats

Bangalore: Concerned by the recent death of tigers at Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), a few techies have proposed the idea of having huge microwave ovens in the park to disinfect large quantities of beef fed to the carnivores.

The recommendation has been made on the lines of the practices in a Canada zoo, where a microwave oven is used to disinfect at least 5,000 kg of beef. The techies made the proposal after they visited BBP following the outbreak of salmonella bacterial infection in the park.

MN Jayakumar, member-secretary, Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK), said, "We are in talks with them (techies) to help us in either getting the microwave oven or designing it. We are also consulting the veterinarians who will have to check the nutritional value of the beef after it is heated for three minutes to disinfect it."

Jayakumar also said that officials had written to the government seeking exemption from the anti-cow slaughter bill whenever it came into effect. Veterinarians had also been requested to find other healthy alternatives to beef, said Jayakumar.

The BBP, along with veterinarians from the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAHVB), is in talks with officials from the Defence Food Research Laboratory, Mysore to procure a food quality check kit.

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IAHVB director Renuka Prasad said that there was a kit available to test the quality of milk and milk products. "A team of scientists will look into whether the quality of meat can be checked using any kit," he said. ZAK chairman M Nanjundaswamy said that based on a preliminary report, Dr Basavaraj, who was the consultant veterinarian in BBP, has been suspended on grounds of inefficiency.

He added that the condition of all the 15 ailing tigers in BBP had improved, though 13 of them were still confined to the isolation ward. BBP executive director Milo Tago said that more enclosures were being built based on CZA guidelines.

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