EEHV is the leading cause of death for Asian elephants.
EEHV is the leading cause of death among North America's Asian elephants, an endangered species, per the. The hemorrhagic disease caused by the virus is especially lethal for calves, which can devastate breeding programs.
Columbus recently launched its own EEHV lab with support from The Smithsonian, making it just one of four U.S. zoological parks capable of testing for it on-site .Elephants are trained for blood draws and providing weekly samples from inside their trunks — the latter accomplished by first teaching them to blow into a harmonica for treats, zookeeper Chris Killilea tells Axios.
Keepers squirt a saline solution inside a nostril, and then the elephant blows the snot mixture into a plastic bag attached to a collection vial.a veterinary technician inside a lab in the zoo's health center breaks down the samples and uses PCR tests to search for viral DNA.But many elephants, including Columbus', have been exposed to EEHV and developed antibodies. It's latent in their bodies, but sometimes sheds from their trunks.
Much is still not known about EEHV, including why it only makes some elephants sick and exactly how it's transmitted, senior zoo veterinarian Priya Bapodra-Villaverde tells Axios. While an in-house lab likely wouldn't have saved 13-year-old Beco, zoo staff hope it could lead to better understanding of the virus and save other elephants."Even with aggressive treatment, this is a tough disease — and without it, there are no survivors," Dan Wallon, the lab's vet tech, tells Axios.
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