The forest department of Chandrapur had found a tiger cub in Mul recently, whose samples were sent to Nagpur Veterinary College (NVC) on Tuesday to get tests done of COVID-19. But the NVC sent back the samples without carrying any test on them and explaining that they are not the ones approved by the centre for animal testing of coronavirus, to the forest department.
The cub is a female, which was found in a rice farm of Mul taluka who showed some ill effects on her health. The improper health of the cub put forest department in concern after which they collected few samples on April 28 and sent them to NVC.
Currently, the cub is under treatment in Chandrapur itself and is said to show some good signs on her health. The forest department is still trying their best to send the samples to an animal institute approved by the centre.
According to sources, the NVC is planning to get approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to run tests on animals and be a designated college and hospital.
Currently, there are only three testing institutes for animals, which are National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases (Bhopal), National Research Centre on Equines (Haryana), and Indian Veterinary REaserch Institute (Bareilly).