E-Paper
Odisha to test pangolin rescued from quarantine centre for Covid-19
A forest department official said as the pangolin was rescued from the quarantine centre where 42 inmates were staying, its swab would be tested for presence of the coronavirus.
The Odisha forest department has decided to test a pangolin, rescued from a quarantine centre, for Covid-19, an official has said.
A team of officials of Athagarh Forest division in Cuttack on Monday rescued the 5-year-old pangolin from a quarantine centre in Badamba. However, it is still not clear how the wild animal ended up at there.
“Acting on a tip-off from the local sarpanch (village head man), we rescued the pangolin from the quarantine facility. We will take it to the veterinary doctor here for its health checkup,” said Athagarh Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Sasmita Lenka.
Lenka said as the pangolin was rescued from the quarantine centre where 42 inmates were staying, its swab would be tested for presence of the coronavirus. The Centre for Wildlife Health in Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology in Bhubaneswar will facilitate the process.
Later, it was decided to also test DFO Lenka for Covid-19 as she had come in contact with the pangolin during the rescue process.
This will be the first time that swab samples of a pangolin will be sent for Covid-19 testing in the state, according to news agency IANS.
The decision to test the pangolin for Covid-19 comes at a time when scientists suspect pangolins could be the carriers of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
A study by researchers from College of Veterinary Medicine, South China Agricultural University, earlier this month has suggested that the Sars-CoV-2 might have originated from a recombination of coronaviruses in a bat and pangolin.
According to the study, pangolins and bats are both nocturnal animals, eat insects, and share overlapping ecological niches which make pangolins the ideal intermediate host for some Sars-related coronaviruses.
The paper was published in the journal Nature.
