A veterinary centre for the study of diseases afflicting large animals, primarily the Amur tiger and Far Eastern leopard, has opened in the Primorye Territory, the press service of the Primorskaya State Academy of Agriculture reported.

The centre is fitted with equipment unique to the Far East for performing surgeries and autopsies and is supposed to help researchers in developing effective measures to preserve the population of the Amur tiger and other endangered animals of the Primorye Territory.

Veterinary students are already doing internships at the new centre, taking part in the research of human influence on wild animals in the Primorye Territory. Such research has long been conducted at the academy together with other Russian and international organisations, such as the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Biology and Soil Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Primorye Territory Wildlife Preservation Directorate and others.