Trichy: The animal husbandry department and the city corporation have been put on alert after a ‘rabies-infected’ cow, which turned violent and attacked a few people over the past few days, died here on Monday morning. Officials from the department said the symptoms indicated that the cow had been infected with rabies and some parts of the dead animal would be sent for further tests for official confirmation.Officials claimed that before this case, no case of any dog or any other animal being infected with rabies had been reported in the last three years. However, sources from the department admitted that a few cases of rabies might have gone unnoticed in the district. The corporation too stated that no one from the public got transmitted with the virus this year so far.But activists claimed that the prevalence of rabies among animals – predominantly stray dogs – is still common in the district and that they often go unreported. In fact, honorary animal welfare officer, Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), G Ramakrishnan told TOI that based on the animal rescue operations he had carried out, eight animals from January till September this month were diagnosed with rabies. “It includes five dogs, two calves and one goat,” he said.Rabies is usually spread when saliva containing the virus is introduced into skin opening through the bite of a rabid animal. In rare cases, it’s also spread when the infected animal licks a person or another animal. The virus affects the central nervous system.On Sunday night, Ramakrishnan received information that a cow had turned violent and was attacking people at Rettaivaikal area. Soon, along with a person from the fire and rescue service department, he went to the spot and after much struggle, tied the cow onto a pole nearby. But the cow severed the rope and started attacking the people again. Later, more fire service personnel were brought to the spot and the cow was tied again. In the morning, animal husbandry officials reached the spot and inspected the cow, but around 9.30am it died and was eventually buried.Joint director in-charge of district animal husbandry department, Trichy, Dr S Murugesan said the cow was acting aggressively and attacked both living beings and inanimate objects, which is a peculiar symptom of rabies. “But to officially confirm it, we have taken its specimens for further tests,” he added. Murugesan claimed that in the last three years, there had been no reported case of rabies among animals in Trichy.City health officer in-charge Dr Rajeshwari said that enough measures are being taken to curb rabies and that all stray dogs for which anti-birth control surgery is performed. Anti-rabies vaccine was also administered, she said. “We’re yet to determine who the owner of the cow is. We’ll monitor the particular area where the cow was spotted for a few days,” she said.

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