Deadly Herpes Outbreak

In elephants.

The New York Times has a story about a sick pachyderm at the St. Louis Zoo. The 2-year old animal presented with a limp, lack of appetite and other symptoms of a virus common among Asian elephants

Her head became swollen at the jaw and forehead, and her tongue, normally bubble-gum pink, became pale and speckled by an intricate pattern of red bruises. Results from the National Elephant Herpesvirus Laboratory at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington soon revealed that Jade was fighting a previously unknown strain of the virus.

Herpes is apparently enough of a problem in North American elephants to warrant a National Elephant Herpesvirus Lab! The virus, which causes fatal haemorrhagic disease, has killed around 20% of elephants born in North American zoos since 2000 and 24 elephants since 1983. Six animals have survived after treatment with human anti-herpes drugs.

It's unclear how the virus is spread or whether, like some human herpesviruses, it can lie dormant only to re-emerge at a later time.

The science of elephants

Inspired by a recent post on this exellent french blog I decided to look up recent findings in elephant research. When I attended the SSR meeting two years ago I came upon a poster which studied the homonal fluctuation in an elephant by taking blood samples every 30 mins for 24h. I felt sorry for the graduate student, because I've done that with mice and it's a pain, I can only imagine what it's like with a 4.5 tons elephant. Reproductive science in elephants is somewhat of a dangerous occupation : "just touching a jumbo penis – they measure more than 1.5metres when aroused – can have painful consequences as German scientist Dr Hildebrandt reveals. One guy I know got a black eye from being hit by an elephant’s penis. It’s a messy business as he massages Jackson’s prostate gland to produce 300ml of semen per orgasm – the equivalent of a can of Coke – which has to be airlifted in giant condoms across America to Christy". Science is also coming handy for conservation efforts. As more and more DNA samples are catalogued, it is now possible to test confiscated tusks from smugglers and determine their origins. What Wasser et al discovered is that the majority of the ivory from the 23 000 elephants killed last year came from Zambia, where it is estimated that the population decreased by up to 90%.