A 10-year-old male elephant is suspected to have died of herpes virus infection in Odisha’s Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP), a leading zoo of the country, early on Sunday.
According to the NZP, the pachyderm suddenly became ill on Friday afternoon with symptoms such as reduced appetite, nasal discharge and swollen glands on both sides of its face. Treatment was started immediately by zoo veterinarians based on the advice of the Centre for Wildlife Health at Orissa University of Agriculture Technology and expert veterinarians of Assam.
The elephant was rescued from nearby Chandaka Forest in July 2010.
“The death is suspected due to herpes virus infection. The cause of death can only be ascertained after post-mortem. After the death of this elephant, Nandankanan is left with six female elephants. The authority is now taking steps to prevent spreading of this virus and to provide advance preventive treatment to remaining vulnerable elephants,” said Jayanta Kumar Das, NZP Deputy Director.
“Herpes virus infection is generally observed in the wild. It spreads when elephants come in physical contact with each other. In the past, an elephant had died due to herpes virus attack in the zoo. If infected by the virus, the platelet count of elephants will drop considerably. It will lead to internal bleeding with little outward manifestation. The face and abdomen will start swelling. The animal will lose interest in taking food,” he said.
“Once attacked by the virus, the treatment will have little impact. We had been administering the elephant only anti-viral doses after observing the symptoms. It is difficult to detect virus attack beforehand. Only when the elephant reduces food intake, suspicion arises. By that time, the organs of the elephant would have been affected by 70 to 80%,” elaborated Mr. Das.
“Now, we are trying to get the blood samples of the rest of the elephants tested. If the platelet count is found to be low, we will immediately start administering anti-viral doses. We are also keeping the other six elephants separately,” he said.
