Veterinary experts are suspecting an outbreak of the Kysasanur Forest Disease (KFD), popularly known as monkey fever, in Maddur range of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve bordering Mysore district. It is also reported to have affected humans.
The tiger reserve authorities have reported deaths of eight bonnet macaques and two common langurs; and it has been transmitted to five workers of the forest department’s anti-poaching camp. The workers are undergoing treatment at Gundlupet government hospital and the condition of one of them is serious.
Following the outbreak, tiger reserve officials have sounded a high alert. Animal and veterinary scientists from the Institute of Animal Health and Veterinary Biologicals (IAHVB) in Bangalore and National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune have rushed to the area further analysis.
This fever is caused due to a viral infection among primates and the first to be affected were bonnet macaques and common langurs. These primates usually move through the trees about 30-50 feet above the ground level. When they eventually touch the grounds due to various factors, particularly during cutting of forests, they transmit the virus through ticks on their bodies to rodents, shrews and reptiles.
This usually happens when forests are cut for building roads, among other things. The ticks from infected monkeys get transmitted to various domestic animals, including cattle, and then to humans.
The disease was first detected in Shimoga district in 1957 and has been appearing every now and then in thickly wooded areas of Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Chikmagalur, Shimoga and Chamarajanagar, and has affected humans too.
According to tiger reserve officials, NH 212 passing through the reserve was one clearing that the monkeys have to touch the ground to cross the road. They said that the anti-poaching camp was also situated just next to the highway where five persons became infected.
An expert team from the health department of Shimoga district has rushed to the area and begun spreading awareness about the infection.
