Distemper blamed in death of panda

The Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Research Center in Zhouzhi county, Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, has launched an emergency response system after four giant pandas raised in the center came down with distemper and one died on Dec 9.

According to Han Xueli, director of the center's general office, the 8-year-old female panda named Cheng Cheng was diagnosed on Dec 6 with the disease and died at about 1:50 pm on Dec 9.

Distemper is a dangerous disease that mainly infects canine and feline animals. The distemper virus is highly contagious, and the mortality rate can be up to 80 percent.