Thailand's much-criticised Tiger Temple tourist attraction on Monday blamed the government for the deaths of scores of its tigers seized by authorities in 2016, denying official accounts that the big cats died from inbreeding and disease.

Thai authorities maintained on Monday that the tigers were well taken care of at government sanctuaries and that they caught diseases like canine distemper virus or laryngeal paralysis because inbreeding had destroyed their immune system.

Since then, however, 86 of the animals living in two state-run wildlife sanctuaries have died due to immune deficiencies from inbreeding, which made the animals vulnerable to deadly diseases, state wildlife authorities said.