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Virus kills four young elephants in Lampung
A state of emergency has been declared at the Elephant Conservation Center (PKG) in Way Kambas National Park in Lampung following to the death of four young elephants over the past three months
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state of emergency has been declared at the Elephant Conservation Center (PKG) in Way Kambas National Park in Lampung following to the death of four young elephants over the past three months.
The four juveniles, aged between three and eight years old, died after being infected by the elephant endotelioliotropic herpes virus.
PKG head Antonius Fevri said the state of emergency was declared after the deadly virus claimed a quarter, or four of 16 young elephants in the breeding area. He said this was the first outbreak of the virus at the center.
'The virus attack is very fast and the incident lasts less than 24 hours. The first three young elephants who died in November 2014 showed symptoms of the illness in the morning and were dead by the afternoon,' he said as quoted by kompas.com.
'The infected elephants [all] show similar symptoms. Our employees found them in weak condition with their tongues turned blue and a significant drop in body temperature, he said.
Antonius said he suspected the virus had been transferred by adult elephants to younger elephants but that the juveniles were unable to fight the virus because of their lower immunity levels.
He said the state of emergency would last for 20 days and that a medical team would check up on the remaining juveniles twice a day, who would be segregated from the adult elephats. (rms)(++++)
