Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur (SP)

Kundapur, Sep 27: The carcass of a monkey was found lying near the house of Subhash Shetty at Abbimakki by the roadside in the taluk on Thursday September 26. Abbimakki is located within Siddapur village.

A monkey was found dead inside the forest area near Kenjimane in Ajri village on September 24. As these are unusual phenomenon, people in the villages near the area are now worried.

The carcass now found is that of a male monkey aged about three years. On Wednesday, it was found lying and suffering but by Thursday morning it had died. Its face had turned red and saliva in large quantities had oozed out its mouth. Post-mortem of the animal was conducted and viscera samples were sent to the laboratory at Shivamogga for conducting tests to determine the cause of its death. The doctors said that the symptoms match the ones relating to monkey fever.

It may be recalled that a few months back, a number of monkeys had died in the twin districts of Udupi and Dakshina Kannada, giving rise to fear about the said disease. However, the incidence of death had decreased with passage of time.

Taluk health officer Dr Nagabhushan Udupa, Siddapur primary health centre junior health assistant, Shivakumar, Prakash, Abhijeet and Krishnamurthy Hebbar of forest department and veterinarian, Dr Karanth, visited the spot. After the post-mortem, the body was buried at the same spot.

Taluk health officer Dr Nagabhushan Udupa, said that there is no need for the people to get panicky as cause of death of monkeys has not been confirmed. He said that ticks normally act as carriers of this disease but ticks are not normally found during this time of the year. He confirmed that enough stock of medicines for treating monkey fever is kept in primary health centres.