The May 30 medical report of the Karachi Zoo elephant, Madhubala, was apparently not just limited to two paragraphs of information about the diagnosis of parasites and medicine.

“In addition, I requested to perform CBC, live function test, renal function test along with total serum proteins on freshly collected samples preferably within the first hour of collection,” said the report, a copy of which is available with Aaj News. “This would allow us to grasp a better picture of what is going on within the body.”

The Zoo administration described it as the “final report”. But, surprisingly, both reports had the same issuance date and time, which is raising questions over the timing of the report.

The lone 17-year-old African elephant in Karachi Zoo was diagnosed with blood parasitic infections that earlier affected her partner, Noor Jehan, who died on April 22.

Madhubala, currently housed at Karachi Zoo, was brought to Karachi 14 years ago from Tanzania. They were caught and separated from their mother at a very young age.

“The persistence of piroplasms even after two shots of diminazine, strengthens the idea about the Theileria as the origin of these piroplasms – that may necessitate the use of Buparvaquone,” said the report by the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences’s Dr Haroon Akbar.

When asked about the report, Karachi Zoo Director Kunwar Ayub said that as far as the report was concerned it was an initial report about which the media was informed.

“We also released the final report. The first dose of the medicine was given to Madhubala following the report and the second dose will be administered to the elephant after 15 days,” he said.

He added that the administration was focused on the minor infection of blood parasite in Madhubala in order to avoid the outbreak. “Alhamdullilah all our animals are clear.”

Ayub claimed that there was no negligence on the part of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation team after he took charge as the zoo director on April 11. He was of the view that Madhubala and Noor Jehan’s cases were entirely different.

Madhubala was affected due to one virus, however, she was not that much affected, he said.

Dr Haroon had asked the zoo authorities to include ginger and pomegranate in her diet. The veterinarian had also suggested the zoo administration explore arthropod vectors like flies and ticks. If found, he advised that they may be captured and kept in 70 per cent ethanol before sending to the lab located in Lahore.

He had added that the administration would have given Diminazine shots, an anti-infective medicine, to the African lioness Sarah and the white lioness.

According to Zoo Director Ayub, there was a doubt that maybe the lionesses were infected, and as per the recommendation of the veterinarian, they started the medication.

“We have given them single-time medicine and we will conduct the test when asked and release the report. So we have cleared these matters,” he added.