New vaccine for elephants!
There’s very exciting news coming in from Chester Zoo!
Working with the University of Surrey and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, they’ve developed a vaccine to tackle elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). This is one of the most serious threats young Asian elephants face. It’s so awful that it can kill an elephant on 24 hours.
Asian elephants are on the IUCN Red List, listed as Endangered. There are about 40,000 left in the wild – and deaths have been reported in a number of countries such as Myanmar, India and Thailand. Elephants in the wild and in zoos are affected by EEHV – and the virus has also been detected in African elephants
The vaccine was first given to an elephant at Chester Zoo back in 2021 – but the breakthrough was announced in Nature Communications. And this means that the vaccine is available for wider use – it is a really critical step in ending the losses of so many elephants.
The University of Surrey explained that this is the first time it has shown a vaccine can produce the sort of immune response needed to protected elephants against EEHV. The next step could be a rollout to more elephants, focusing on young elephants who are most at risk from EEHV first of all.
This is a very exciting announcement – and it comes shortly after the arrival of another new vaccine on the other side of the world to tackle chlamydia in koalas. Chlamydia can destroy koala populations, so this is another good move for science. Find out more about that here.
Well done, everyone!!
Thanks to Taif Rahaman for the wonderful photo at the top of this page!
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