The deaths of 72 tigers at a tourist attraction in Chiang Mai last week have been called into question, with the source of the virus and bacteria blamed for the fatalities yet to be clearly identified.
The main suspect is the raw chicken meat supplied by a private farm and fed to all tigers kept at the two Tiger Kingdom facilities in the northern province, in Mae Rim and Mae Taeng districts.
The disposal process for all the tiger carcasses has now been been completed.
Initially the carcasses were burned, but there were too few cremation facilities available and this was later changed to burial, an official said.
No skins or teeth were taken for sale, he said, and each burial site was marked with the tiger’s identification number for any future reference.
On Saturday, the Provincial Livestock Office said the carcasses were found to be infected with canine distemper virus, complicated by Mycoplasma bacteria. Feline parvovirus was also earlier said to be present.
Agencies responsible for disease investigation, however, have not clarified where the pathogens originated.
This has led to public speculation about whether the outbreak may have come from shared food sources rather than the diseases, or whether the stated causes of death are even accurate.
An early assumption, before laboratory results, focused on avian influenza potentially present in the raw chicken meat, but the results did not reflect this.
On Sunday, a veterinarian who said he was part of the team handling the tiger deaths, said on Facebook, "Sweeping critical issues under the rug and failing to learn from the disease surveillance and epidemiology system will prevent any improvement in the industry.”
He also suggested that the real cause may have escaped scrutiny and continued to cause harm.
Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai remains closed to the public.
There were 246 tigers at the Chiang Mai facilities. By Feb 18, a total of 72 had reportedly died, the largest mass death of tigers on record.
