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Pradhan, S.; Sharma, D.; Subba, B.; Chettri, V.
Preliminary investigation on the parasites of mammals at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park, Darjeeling
2011  Zoo's Print (26): 11-13

There is now a growing consensus that issues, problems and management of high altitude Indian zoos are seminally different from the low land zoos in India. However, dearth of documented information on various aspects, including that of parasitic infection in animals of high altitude zoos was observed. The present report is a simple attempt to respond to this lack of information on the parasitic infection in animals of high altitude zoos in India. 698 stool tests reports from the zoo were consulted for the present compilation of the parasitic loads and infection in 19 mammal species of Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park (altitude: 2137 meters) a high altitude zoo in Darjeeling hills. Only 121 (17%) of the 698 stool reports, indicated positive parasitic infection in the mammals. The animals were specifically positive for _Trichomonas sp_, _Toxocara sp _and _Ascarids_. Among the infected animal groups, the primates showed almost no infection, whereas others exhibited parasites to a varying degree, the highest being among the Felidae. Parasitic infection (28%) in snow leopard was higher than the other felids, but was, closely followed by the leopard cat (23%) and the Royal Bengal tiger (15%). Out of the 15 red panda, only seven animals tested positive for parasites out of which five animals (33%) were interestingly all old animals above the age of 11 years. No distinct seasonal pattern of parasitic infection in the mammals at Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park was seen from this very basic and preliminary investigation.

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