Step up fight against panda disease
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E-mail China Daily, November 14, 2012
Zhang Zhihe said when the area is completed, it will have 10 pandas.
The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda at the Wolong Nature Reserve, also in Sichuan, has expanded its panda habitat, increasing the capacity of its dens from housing 20 pandas to 65 since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.
Captive pandas also face an increasing threat of infection from the increased contact they have with humans.
Zhang Zhihe said: "Disease prevention, control and treatment for pandas has much room for improvement, especially known conditions like canine distemper."
Canine distemper, which can kill dogs and other members of the canine family, can also infect pandas. It is difficult to cure, and strenuous preventive efforts are being made.
Several institutions housing pandas, in China and abroad, have used vaccines from a distemper gene produced in the United States.
"Results so far show it's a safe and effective vaccine," Zhang Zhihe said. "But it's very difficult to import vaccines from abroad, as they are biological products, and the Chinese government has control over them. Authorities need to do more to assist us to solve the problem."
Due to greater efficiency in panda breeding, the number of overseas panda exhibitions has increased. But at some overseas zoos, pandas suffer from health problems, with experts saying more care is needed when selecting zoos for "panda diplomacy" projects.
In 2010, Xingxing, a 14-year-old male from Wolong Nature Reserve, died at Oji Zoo in Kobe, Japan, after he was given an anesthetic so keepers could collect sperm.
A week-old cub died of pneumonia at Tokyo Zoo in July, while in September a cub of similar age born at the US National Zoo in Washington DC died of liver disease.
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