At the 100-year-old Chennai-based King Institute, one of the three centres in the country which manufactures anti-snake venom serum (asvs), the equine "production units' have currently been dropping dead with unfailing, distressing regularity. More than 40 horses have died over the past three months after consuming "some toxic chemicals'. This took the death toll of horses at the institute's stables this year to 70.
Post-mortem reports of the dead animals point to the presence of an organo-phosphorous compound (thiophosphate), 1ppm (parts per million), in their livers. Water samples collected from the horses' trough at the institute indicate the presence of 1 ppm of nitrite and 0.3 ppm of ammonia.
The Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University team which conducted the autopsies says the animals died primarily due to "intake" of thiophosphate.
While the cause behind the presence of nitrite could not be ascertained, there is a strong suspicion that the pesticide got into the fodder during its transportation.
Veterinarians also say that the cause of "sudden death" could not be attributed to fungi infecting the feed. The degenerative effects would be much slower in that case and couldn't have eluded the authorities.
Meanwhile, institute director C. Chandra Prabha—who had tried brushing the deaths aside by claiming that "death of horses while manufacturing asvs is routine—has been asked to go on leave. The state government has also transferred a veterinarian who injected venom into a pregnant horse.
To save face further, the government has suspended the production of asvs at the institute for a month "to correct the flaws in the procedure". The snake venom is injected into the horses' veins and antibodies produced in the animal are extracted from their blood to produce asvs.
"But this procedure has been more of a torture for animals and many of them have met with agonising deaths," admits a health department official. Adds he: "There has been a lot of negligence at work. Overdose of snake venom have made horses and mules ill. Many of them have gone blind and even died."
The death of the horses came to light only when the Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (cpcsea) under the Union ministry of empowerment and social justice intervened. The institute had applied for registration to the cpcsea two years ago, as this had been made mandatory.
Says a cpcsea consultant: "We will not issue a registration till they qualify." According to her, the suspension of production of asvs has hardly made a difference. "Two weeks ago, when the committee went for inspection, 36 of the 129 horses were sick. Today, the number has gone up to 63. Of these, about 20 animals are critical." She adds: "During the last inspection, we gave them clear guidelines on the drug to be administered. Till now, they have not even procured it." She said the horses had bleeding wounds and were in excruciating pain.
The upshot of the horse deaths is serious: there could be a serious crisis of asvs in the country. A health department official says: "Though we have made arrangements to procure the drug from other states, the shortfall for this month is 6,200 vials." Clearly, these are very bad tidings for government hospitals which are already strapped for the serum.