AP Features, July 3rd, 2007
A previously unknown elephant herpes virus killed the Woodland Park Zoo's youngest Asian elephant, zoo officials said Monday.
Six-year-old Hansa, who died last month, was one of 12 elephants fathered by a bull at a zoo in Missouri. Three of the others exhibited herpes symptoms in the past decade. Two of them died, while the third, Chandra, was successfully treated in 1997.
Bruce Bohmke, deputy director of the Woodland Park Zoo, said he was not sure if zoo officials knew about Chandra's herpes treatment before the meeting between the bull and Hansa's mother at the Dickerson Zoo in Springfield, Mo., that led to Hansa's conception.
Bohmke said it was irrelevant because Hansa died of a previously unknown version of the virus.
"It would be irresponsible if we knew for a fact that this outcome was going to happen," Bohmke said. "But it wasn't clear then, like it would be now in hindsight. This is also a different kind of herpes."
The disease attacked Hansa's blood vessels, zoo officials said. She died June 8 after showing a decreased appetite and activity. She did not exhibit any of the signs that accompany the previously identified herpes viruses, which include a purple tongue or skin lesions.
"We were still pretty sad but grateful to find out the cause," Bohmke said Monday.
Because the virus is new, zoo officials have no way of testing to see if the other three elephants at the Woodland Park Zoo, including Hansa's mother, have it. They show no signs of illness, said Dr. Kelly Helmick, interim director of animal health.
Previously, scientists had identified two other types of herpes virus in wild and captive African and Asian elephants. Hansa was initially tested for both, but because the virus that attacked her was genetically different from the two known viruses it could not be detected, Helmick said.
A group of red dots on the nucleus of Hansa's blood cells led a veterinary pathologist to suspect herpes even though early tests turned out negative, said Dr. Scott P. Terell, a veterinary pathologist and the elephant species survival plan pathologist for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
Dr. Laura Richman, a veterinary pathologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo who specializes in elephant herpes viruses, later confirmed that a new form of herpes was the cause of death and classified the new virus through DNA testing.
Richman said little was known about the new virus.
Herpes is common in mammals; the virus is species specific and has been known to kill elephants within 24 hours.
It can be passed either through birth or contact with another infected elephant, Terell said.
There have been 21 known cases of herpes viruses involving Asian elephants in North America. Only three have survived, Bohmke said.
There is no vaccine for the two previously identified elephant herpes viruses. Scientists successfully treated the three elephants with an anti-viral drug used to treat human herpes.
