Experts in Switzerland say they don’t know how to stop the spread of a virus that has killed three young elephants in a zoo in Zurich in a month.
Umesh, a two-year-old male, was the first to die of elephant dotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV) in late June, followed a few days later by his eight-year-old sister Omysha. Last Saturday, Ruwani, a five-year-old female from a second matriarchal herd, also fell victim to the herpes virus, which is latent in almost all giant mammals.
The infection results in internal bleeding and organ failure, resulting in death within days.
“The problem is that we can’t do much with this virus,” said zoo curator Pascal Marty.
“There is a method of giving antiviral drugs, but it has not been shown to be very effective. It is about 30 percent of the elephants that survive. And that’s why it’s like this kind of helplessness that we feel because we can’t really handle it; the science is not far enough that we have a vaccine, for example.”
Young elephants between the ages of two and eight are particularly susceptible to the herpes virus because the protection provided by their mothers’ antibodies is diminished and their own immune systems may not have formed their own antibodies.
The zoo’s five surviving Asian elephants — all adults — were allowed to spend a few hours gathering with the remains of their young relatives and companions.
Marty said it was important to give the animals “enough time” [to] say goodbye”.
“It’s very hard to tell if they’re sad, because sadness is a human thing,” he said.
But he stressed that since elephants are highly social animals, it is vital that they are given the opportunity to realize when a member of their herd is no longer alive.
“It’s very important for them to understand that this person is no longer part of our group.”
Less than a week after the last death, the zoo’s remaining elephants seem casual about their daily activities, from swimming in a large pond to foraging for food.
They stick their trunks into burrows, where a computer program randomly distributes carrots and dried grass, aiming to make the animals walk and forage for food as they would in the wild.
The zoo said there was a low risk of disease for the remaining elephants, with Farha now the youngest at 17, although all animals will continue to be monitored.
The Zurich Zoo opened its new 11,000 square meter elephant enclosure in 2014, giving the herds six times more space than before. But eight years later, the zoo acknowledged it was going through “hard days.”
“It is extremely frustrating that we are powerless against this virus, despite the best veterinary care through the University Animal Hospital in Zurich,” zoo director Severin Dressen said in a statement.
Bhaskar Choudhury, veterinarian and member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Asian Elephant Specialist Group, said “the epidemiology of the disease is still unclear”.
“The virus is shed intermittently by adults, but with increasing frequency during periods of stress, which is thought to be the source of infection for young calves,” he told AFP.
“IUCN is deeply concerned about global mortality in captivity and even more so in the wild.”
Asian elephants, which can live up to about 60 years, are listed by the IUCN as an endangered species, with only about 50,000 left in the wild.
Deforestation, urban sprawl and agricultural development have robbed them of their natural habitat, while poaching and illegal ivory trade also threaten many herds.
“The populations are declining almost everywhere,” Marty said, adding that for conservation reasons it is also very important to have good and healthy populations of Asian elephants in Europe.
The Zurich Zoo, he said, has one of the world’s most modern elephant enclosures and plans to continue its mission of breeding them.
He described the elephants in the park as “partners” in educating people about the problems facing wild elephants.
“Elephants here at the zoo have an important role as ambassadors for their own species,” he said.
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