A report on eye affections in captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) of Kerala state during 2010-2024

Kerala, a State of South India has large number of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), mostly tuskers, as tuskers are preferred for temple festivals. Because of large captive elephant population, a greater number of health issues are reported from Kerala and the number of cases having eye affections are also considerably high. During a period of 15 years from 2010 to 2024, 152 elephants suffering from eye affections were examined. Out of 152 cases during the study period, 144 (94.74) were males and remaining eight (5.26) were females. All of them were adults ranging from an approximate age of 22 years to 85 years. The clinical signs were excessive lacrimation, corneal opacity, cataract and ocular trauma. All the aged elephants were having multiple age-related symptoms including cataract. On detailed examination, conditions like lens luxation, retinal detachment, phthisical eye, sub-retinal haemorrhage and damaged vitreous were identified.