A new study has found a new virus called canine distemper virus (CDV) is threatening the population of tiger in the wild. The study done by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and its partners has suggested that CDV could push the tigers toward extinction.
The impacts of these virus was evaluated on the Amur tiger population in Russi's Sikhote-Alin Biosphere Zapovednik (SABZ), where the numbers of tiger went down from 38 individuals to 9 in the years 2007 to 2012. In 2009 and 2010, six adult tigers died or disappeared from the reserve, and CDV was confirmed in two dead tigers.
WCS veterinarian Martin Gilbert, said that though it was found that CDV led to the death of tigers they started the study in order to understand the risk posed by the virus to the whole populations.
The model of the study was based on tiger ecology data collected over 20 years in SABZ. During the study, the researchers found different ways by which tigers could be exposed to the virus and how these impact the extinction risk to tiger populations over the long term.
According to WCS Russia Program Director, Dale Miquelle, tigers faced several threats throughout their range like poaching to competition with humans for their natural habitat and it reduced the tiger populations making them more susceptible to diseases such as CDV.
According to experts, small tiger populations are more likely to get affected from CDV than larger populations.
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