Kozhikode (Kerala): Animal Husbandry department officials will collect the body fluids of bats in and around Pazhur in Chathamangalam, where a 12-year-old boy contracted Nipah, and send the samples to Bhopal for testing. The officials also collected the blood and saliva of the goat at the house of the victim and will send all the samples to the lab.
The team led by the Animal Husbandry department deputy director KK Baby said that the efforts are on identifying the source of infection and the samples from bat and goat will be sent to Bhopal to check for the presence of the deadly Nipah virus.
Pigs are a secondary source of Nipah infection as they usually eat wild berries eaten by bats. So the department is in consultation with the forest department to check for the presence of wild boars in the area. The team had also collected samples of the Rambutan fruits from the area. The family of the deceased boy had told officials that he had eaten a rambutan fruit ahead of his infection.
Read: Kerala authorities intensify efforts to trace origin of Nipah virus
