China surgeon turns cataract skills to cat's eyes by Zuzana Krskova

A year old South China tiger from Nanchang Zoo in the eastern province of Jiangxi, Xinhua had the cataracts removed last week.A top eye surgeon at a hospital affiliated to Nanchang University has been entrusted by Zoo managers with operation. "I removed cataracts from thousands of humans, but it was the first time I have operated on a tiger." said surgeon Liu Fei. "Cats have a third eyelid and their anatomy is quite different from humans."The male cub, born through artificial insemination, is one of the country's two surviving South China tigers.Tiger cub often ran into walls and fences and could only sniff for food, so Zoo workers had suspicion, that is unable to see. In December, as a result of inbreeding, he was diagnosed with congenital cataracts in both eyes.Almost all the 72 tigers bred in captivity nationwide are descended from the six tigers captured in the wild in 1955, that's why are South China tiger cubs prone to congenital defects.The South China tiger is critically endangered, and the number of those tigers in the wild is fewer than 30. According to the World Wildlife Fund, it's believed my many scientists to be functionally extinct. Chinese vets and doctors have reported success in cataract operations on Siberian tigers, but have never operated on South China tiger."We were very concerned over whether the cub should be operated on at all." said Zhao. "Some Zoo workers said the species was too rare to take that risk."

by Zuzana Krskova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Edited by: Katarina Bosanska