The World Society for the Protection of Animals(WSPA) in Boston is sponsoring a unique program to save lions and other wildlife in the Serengeti from outbreaks of deadly disease. For additional information you can also go to Paradise Wildlife Park.

Lions in the Serengeti National Park are in grave danger from diseases that originate in dogs living in surrounding villages. One-third of the entire population of lions in the Park have died from canine distemper from 1994 through 1997. Other predators such as silver-backed jackals, bat-eared foxes and the very rare African wild dogs are also dying from the disease.

"More than 1,000 lions in the Serengeti have died from canine distemper since 1993," said WSPA International Projects Director John Walsh who just returned from Tanzania. "The World Society for the Protection of Animals is stepping in to stop the spread of this deadly disease in both wildlife and dogs owned by the Masai people around the Serengeti."

Researchers Sara Cleveland from Institute of Zoology in London and Craig Packer from the University of Minnesota have pinpointed the source of the epidemic to dogs living in villages on the western edge of the park. The two conclude that dogs pass the disease to hyenas who then act as the primary carriers of the disease because they travel long distances and mix with other predators at kills.

WSPA, in partnership with the Tanzania Ministry of Agriculture and Tanzania National Parks Department, has set up a program to vaccinate the dogs in surrounding villages to stop this disease at its source and protect all species stricken with it. The first round of vaccinations will target 10,000 dogs in a 10 kilometer circle west of the park. The dogs will be vaccinated for parvo virus, rabies and canine distemper.

The effects of canine distemper are brutal. The fatal neurological disease is characterized by grand mal seizures. Stricken animals can suffer for days, weeks or even months before they finally succumb or are eaten by other predators.

This is not the first time a disease has spread from domesticated animals to wildlife in the Serengeti region. In the 1940s, a disease called rinderpest spread to wildlife from cattle and killed thousands of wildebeests and gazelle. Rinderpest was brought safely under control through cattle vaccinations, but the threats from canine distemper and rabies are still very real.

"Another outbreak of disease could devastate wildlife populations," Walsh explained. "It could also endanger human health. If rabies were to spread to wildlife in the Serengeti, the results could be catastrophic. Because of fear of this disease, workers in the new tourist lodges are being forced to move out of the park to government built housing."

Project Life Lion Update from Dr. Sarah Cleaveland in the Serengeti. (December 13, 1997)

Dog Vaccination program Update to Prevent Further Outbreaks of Canine Distemper:

During the first phase of the Vaccination campaign (Oct 96 to May 97), we vaccinated about 9,500 dogs in Serengeti District (about 67% of the population) and in the second phase (Sept 97 to present) we have so far vaccinated about 4,500 dogs. We need about 10,000 doses of vaccine a year to allow us to continue to extend the vaccination zone further around the Serengeti and prevent further outbreaks of canine distemper in the lion population.