A 12-year-old African elephant at the Sedgwick County Zoo has started treatment for a potentially deadly virus.
Blood tests revealed that Zuberi had elevated levels of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus. It’s a disease that mainly affects elephants under the age of 15 and can be fatal in severe cases. EEHV does not have a vaccine and it is not preventable. It cannot be transmitted to humans or other animal species.
Zoo officials said in a press release that elephants are tested weekly and the elephant care and veterinary teams have worked over the past year on monitoring procedures to catch viral infections early. Elephants always show a trace of EEHV in their blood, but until now the elephants at the Zoo had amounts that were well below the threshold that would make them sick.
Zuberi is not showing any symptoms at this time, and the animal care team is optimistic that she will recover quickly.
