Hyderabad: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu visits LaCONES-CCMB

Naidu also called for closer collaboration between zoos and research institutions that will help in studying diseases in wildlife and preserve genetic material of animals.

Hyderabad: Vice President, M. Venkaiah Naidu on Friday emphasized the importance of studying wildlife to conserve endangered species and to also understand and predict zoonotic diseases better.

During a visit to Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) at the city-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on Friday, he alluded to zoonotic diseases like Covid-19 and underlined that researchers and zoos must utilise their resources and expertise optimally to predict emerging infectious diseases from animals to humans.

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Naidu also called for closer collaboration between zoos and research institutions that will help in studying diseases in wildlife and preserve genetic material of animals and also avail the advantages of assisted reproductive technologies. The zoos and research institutions like LaCONES-CCMB should also partner in research to understand reproductive anatomy and physiology in wildlife, he said.

The Vice President interacted with the wildlife scientists and saw the facilities for wildlife conservation at LaCONES including the National Wildlife Genetic Resource Bank and the Assisted Reproduction Lab. Later, he released a book on ‘Introduction to Genetic Resource Banks for Wildlife Conservation’ authored by LaCONES and Central Zoo Authority.

Recently, Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has formed a consortium of six zoos from different parts of India and LaCONES-CCMB.

Dr Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Scientist-in-charge at LaCONES-CCMB said, “CZA has been instrumental in bringing zoos together with a research institute like ours. We want this consortium to set an example of how zoos and a wildlife research institute like LaCONES can work cohesively towards shared goals. The National Wildlife Genetic Resource Bank can become a storehouse of biological samples from zoos in India. These samples can then be used for artificial insemination, creating sperms and oocytes through modern biotechnological tools, and help revive the endangered animals.”

Dr Vinay Nandicoori, Director, CSIR-CCMB said, “In the current scene of climate change and a pandemic, it is necessary and timely that active collaborations happen between molecular biologists, ecologists and zoos. LaCONES-CCMB has demonstrated its capabilities over the last decade and it is time for Indian zoos to take advantage of our tools and expertise.”

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