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December 18, 2010

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Panda dies of epilepsy

A four-year-old giant panda died of epilepsy on Thursday at a zoo in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, zoo officials confirmed yesterday.

Lang Lang, who was among the eight "Olympic Pandas" on display in Beijing in 2008, fell ill on November 9, said a spokesman from Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo.

"Lang Lang suffered a seizure and was diagnosed with epilepsy. His condition was stable after treatment and he began drinking and eating as normal on November 16," said the spokesman surnamed Qin.

However, the panda suffered another seizure on December 1 and was in a coma for more than two weeks until he died yesterday.

Panda experts and vets from the Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces kept a 24-hour watch on Lang Lang, hoping to save him by using massage and other therapies.

Professor Yao Huochun of Nanjing Agricultural University said they had ruled out brain damage, leaving "severe essential epilepsy" as the most likely cause of Lang Lang's death.

Researchers from Nanjing and the Wolong Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in Sichuan carried out an autopsy yesterday, but the results have not yet been published.

Lang Lang's body will be shipped back to his ancestral home in Sichuan.

 

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