Animal Health and Veterinary Care  

Every Zoo should have a good veterinary  facility for up keeping and maintaining the zoo  animals in the best of their health. The animal  health care in Arignar Anna Zoological Park is  taken care of by the Veterinary section.

The veterinary section in Arignar Anna  zoological park has a modern veterinary  hospital with three experienced veterinarians,  field assistants and well equipped clinical room,  pathology room, laboratory, operation theatre and   quarantine facilities.

 :: The duties of the veterinarians include

• Identifying and treating the ailing animals.

• Taking prophylactic measures such as vaccination, deworming, etc.

• Offering prenatal and postnatal care.

• Hand rearing of the orphaned young ones.

• Ensuring the quality of the feed of zoo animals.

• Conducting regular pathological and clinical tests.

The lab of the Zoo veterinary hospital is fully equipped with Blood auto analyzer, urine analyzer, Digital pH meter, laminar airflow and direct microscope. A lab assistant analyses the sample and is being supervised by the veterinarian. Faecal examination is being carried out through out the year for all the captive animals including reptiles.

 :: Prophylactic measures

As the saying goes “Prevention is better than cure”, it holds true for the captive zoo animals also. For this, regular prophylactic measures are taken. All the zoo animals are dewormed with different drug combinations. Apart from regular deworming, the animals are dewormed after analyzing the faecal samples on daily basis. Vaccination of big cats is being carried out annually in addition to the deworming procedures. The herbivores are being vaccinated against Haemorrhaghic septaecemia, Foot and mouth disease, Black quarter etc.

 :: Quarantine Measures

Arignar Anna Zoological Park has a quarantine section just near the veterinary hospital. The animals received on exchange basis from different zoos for exhibit purpose are kept for 90 days quarantine in the veterinary hospital. The blood samples, faecal samples and Nasal smear/nasal swab are collected from the quarantined animals and subjected to various tests to find out the presence of pathogenic organism. Only after clearance from the quarantine section, the animals are mixed with other animals.

 :: Treatment of ailing animals

In spite of best efforts of prophylactic measures, the animal may suffer from different ailments. The ailing animals are treated either as out patient or inpatient by the veterinary doctors depending on the condition of the animal.

 :: Tranquilization of animals

Zoo animals are generally subjected to tranquilization for different surgical manoeuvres, non-invasive diagnostic procedures and translocation. Tranquilization is usually carried out using traquilizing gun or blow pipe. The common drugs used for tranquilization are Ketamine, Xylazine, Etorpine, Acepromazine, etc.

 :: Feed Quality Control

Supply of feed to the zoo animals is an important task. The herbivore animals get a mixed diet of fruits, vegetables, wheat bran and green fodder grass. The carnivores are given beef and chicken. The birds are fed with fish. The quality of the feed stuffs offered to the mammals, birds and reptiles are critically evaluated before despatching the same from the stores. The blood smears taken from the beef is evaluated for the presence of blood protozoans before offering it to the carnivores. The other perishable items are checked for specified quality daily.