Eighty-five cows were found dead in a cow protection shelter at the outskirts of Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning. Animal Husbandry Department officials are treating another fifteen cows which were found sick but were alive.
The shelter, located in Kotturu Tadepalli, is managed by the Vijayawada Gosamrakshana Sangham (Vijayawada Cow Protection Society) with the support of multiple donors. Started in 2003, the shelter is said to house more than 1300 cows, mostly brought in by the local ‘gau raksha dal’.
Speaking to a local media outlet, a member of the cow shelter committee said, “Animal husbandry officials are conducting a post-mortem to find out the cause of the deaths. As of now, we believe it might be because of contamination in the fodder.”
Speaking to TNM, Animal Husbandry Department Joint Director (JD) for Krishna district, Bharat Ramesh, said, “The materials have been sent to the lab. Results will be back in 48 hours. As of now, we believe that the deaths were due to toxins released because of indigestion. These animals are often undernourished, so once they find food, they end up eating large amounts very quickly. This might have resulted in a stomach infection.”
The JD said that it was unlikely that there was any foul play with the fodder, as some members of the shelter’s management were suggesting. “At this stage, we are fairly certain that the cause of death was not external poison or contagious diseases,” he said.
Another member of the cow shelter management committee told local reporters that the same sources of fodder were being used at the shelter for the past few years. “Yesterday around 5.30 pm we got around 10 tonnes of fodder from Addanki. These are our regular sources. But as of now, we have stopped feeding green fodder to the cows. We will only use dry fodder until we receive instructions from the veterinary doctors,” he said.