Surveillance and examination of dental problems in captive sloth bears

Abstract

Sloth Bear is classified as vulnerable species in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list data of threatened species under vulnerable animal in 1990 and is a protected wild animal, under the Schedule I of Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 (IWPA,1972). Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) are omnivorous in general. This retrospective study period (from 2006 to 2015) was carried out to survey the dental problems and management measures adopted, in rescued sloth bears in rescued sloth bear from Agra Bear Rescue Facility, Agra, Uttar Pradesh. Out of 224 rescued sloth bears, 11 sloth bears were noticed with dental problems during the study period and the common dental problems of sloth bears were found to be broken canine and incisor, broken canine and incisor with peri-apical abscess, and over-grown gums/tissue lesions. During examinations of oral cavities of bears under study, some of the animals had infected root canals, peri-apical abscesses, and overgrown gums tissues with evidence of infections. From this area, swabs were obtained and subjected to bacterial culture. The bacterial culture revealed Beta hemolytic Streptococci and Anaerobic Bacteroides, Coagulase positive Staphylococci, Pseudomonas species, beta-hemolytic Streptococci, Pseudomonas profuse, Klebsiella, etc. Antibiotic sensitivity tests using 40 antibiotics were used in this study and management-related measures concerning the dental problems encountered and studied in the rescued Sloth bears were revealed in this study.