TANZANIA

-- The details of
tracking down of the canine
distemper disease that broke
out among the lion population in, the Serengeti National
Park, (Down To Earth, Vol 4,
No 16) were recently made
public. If it would not have
been . for some smart
sleuthing by medical experts,
the killer disease would have
wreaked havoc among the
lion population of the
region. A group of tourists
first came across lions having
convulsions in early 1994
and informed a wildlife
veterinarian, Melody, E
Roelke-Parker, who sent
samples fiom dead, sick and
apparently li@althy lions, to
laboritories around the
world. It was the first time
that the disease had broken
out on an epidemic scale in
the wild. Max J G Appel,
a pathologist and canine
distemper virus expert at
Cornell University's College
of Veterinary Medicine, us,
finally confirmed the identity
of the virus.