Golden Jackal Rabies: First Positive Case Reported in Mumbai – Mumbai News

In an alarming discovery, rabies infection has been confirmed in samples from one of the five golden jackals that died separately within a month in Mumbai, a forest department official said.

Following the successive deaths of five golden jackals from the same area, brain samples of the last dead animal were sent for rabies test, which came back positive, the official said.

This month, two golden jackal carcasses were found and three live jackals were rescued from the Mumbai premises of the Thane Territorial Wing of the Forest Department.

The live animals were handed over to RAWW (Reskink Association for Wildlife Welfare) in Mumbai for treatment and rehabilitation, the official said.

The first live animal died before treatment began. Another golden jackal was treated and stabilized by veterinarians, but it died hours after being rescued. A third died a day after he was rescued from Chembur after exhibiting unusual behavior, a forest official said.

All the corpses have been handed over to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) for post-mortem. Brain samples from the last dead animal were extracted and sent to the Mumbai Veterinary College for testing for rabies infection. The test was positive, the official said.

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