Fatal respiratory disease in Nilgiri tahr: possibly malignant catarrhal fever

Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius) are native to India and are a rare zoo exhibit. This report describes an acute respiratory disease in tahr that caused the death of 15 of 16 animals in an extensive exhibit of about 35 acres where they were housed together with a variety of other exotic species of ruminants. The deaths occurred in two separate outbreaks and were associated with losses from malignant catarrhal fever in other ruminants in the exhibit. The most prominent clinical sign was severe dyspnea, and death occurred within five days. The principal lesions were an acute nonsuppurative inflammation of the respiratory tract and pulmonary vessels, lymphadenopathy and lymphoid cell infiltration in the organs of some animals. It was conjectured that the tahr died of a unique pneumonic form of malignant catarrhal fever. Attempts at viral isolation were negative.