Prevalence of neoplasms in captive wild felines of Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park, Tirupati

In the present investigation a total of 47 tumour cases were studied in captive wild felines based on histopathological examination. The highest tumourprevalence was observed in lions (85.11%) followed by tigers (12.77%) and leopards (2.13%). Sex-wise, female wild felines (68.08%) and age-wise, 20–25 years age group (57.14%) was frequently affected. Though the tumours involving a variety of tissues were observed, the endothelial and its relative tissues were more frequent sites of growth than other tissues of the body. Connective tissue tumours and the mixed tumours were relatively rarely noticed. The increase in prevalence of tumourswith the advancement of age in exclusively meat eating captive wild felinessuggest that the age and the meat eating habit might be the predisposing factors for increased risk of cancers in them.