Five cats caught and shifted from near the wards of COVID-19 patients at the General Hospital here were found dead over the past few days. The cats had been shifted to the facilities of the Animal Birth Control Centre under the Kasaragod district panchayat.
After post-mortem examination, samples of their internal organs have been kept aside for further testing to ascertain whether they died of COVID-19 infection. The post-mortem examination was carried out by Tito Joseph, Animal Disease Control Project Coordinator, and District Epidemiologist M.J. Sethulakshmi. Dr. Joseph rejected the possibilities of COVID-19 infection.
Viral photos
The Health Department came under criticism when the photographs of a cat trying to eat the food waste dumped in a basket kept near the isolation ward had gone viral. The cats were caught later following complaints raised by the patients. Two cats reportedly died over a couple of days after they were caught around 10 days ago and were buried by the workers at the Animal Birth Control Centre, while the others died later. Following this, the Animal Husbandry Department collected the samples of the internal organs of a two-year-old tomcat and two 20-day-old kittens.
Officials of the department said the matter had been reported to the Chief Disease Investigation officer at Palode in Thiruvananthapuram. However, the samples, after being tested at a lab in Thiruvananthapuram, if needed, would be sent to the National High-Security Animal Lab in Bhopal, Dr. Joseph said.
