Another outbreak of Kysanur Forest Disease (KFD) or monkey fever may take a toll on the simian population in Wayanad district if the authorities fail to adopt preventive measures on time, a study says.

The study was conducted following the recent KFD outbreak in bonnet macaques in the district by a team led by Arun Zachariah, Assistant Professor, Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU).

Promod G. Krishnan, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Palakkad, ordered the study after a mass mortality of bonnet macaques was reported in the Nilambur south division of forest in December 2014 and the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary (WWS) in January this year. More than 100 monkeys had perished to the disease.

“The current outbreak is a major one both in humans and simians in the non-KFD range area, raising serious questions regarding changing disease dynamics of the KFD virus,” Dr. Zachariah said.

Nine persons had succumbed to the disease so far in the district.