Thread by @rishpardikar

There are many criticisms of the #Cheetah introduction plan. No real conservation value tops the list + others like viability & cost. Disease risk is one that hasn't been discussed as much

My report

downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-…

Acc. to @IUCN reintroduction guidelines, “no translocated organisms can be entirely free of infection with micro-organisms or parasites, with consequent risk of their spread.”

iucn-whsg.org/node/1471

So disease risk assessments are a top priority to ensure that the 20 cheetahs are & remain healthy & to minimise risk of introducing a new pathogen into Kuno

Pointing to "stressors" Karthikeyan Vasudevan of Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species said “You bring animals in by flight or ships & then keep them in completely strange environments… these can act as triggers which amplify subliminal infections”

@abi_vanak: As with any other carnivore in India, [the 20 cheetahs] will likely be exposed to CDV from free-ranging domestic dogs as well as diseases such as feline infectious peritonitis & infection from the feline leukaemia virus, particularly under captive conditions

Vanak also mentioned that while initial stages of the re-introduction programme may be relatively risk free, “as populations become free-ranging & potentially increase contact with human-dominated landscapes, risks of contracting disease from domestic animals will also increase

@anyadoc said cheetahs are “highly susceptible” to feline infectious peritonitis virus.

But what makes the problem particularly worse is that India does not have baseline data about the prevalence of this virus in cat populations in the country

Bottom line: agenda should have been the conservation of the cheetah, not the conservation of the cheetah in India - a plan that can have pitfalls like disease risk