BHUBANESWAR: A sub-adult female elephant rescued by Athagarh Forest Division officials that died last week was found to be infected by herpes virus - a deadly virus that claimed lives of five pachyderms in the State last year.
The lower jaw of the elephant was found fractured during the time of rescue.Sources in OUAT Centre for Wildlife Health (CWH) said since the elephant tested positive for the virus, the issue has raised concern among wildlife experts because Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV) can cause highly fatal hemorrhagic disease when transmitted to young Asian elephants.
To tackle the situation, CWH experts have asked officials of Athagarh Forest Division and other nearby divisions to collect faecal samples of sub-adult elephants from different ranges to test further and ascertain if other elephants have been infected.
The pachyderms, infected with the virus, usually show symptoms of sudden illness which include reduced appetite, swollen glands on both sides of the face and nasal discharge.
The virus had killed four elephants in Nandankanan Zoo in a span of 25 days between August and September and another elephant at Chandaka forest in the first week of October last year.
Professor and Head of Department of Preventive Medicine at OUAT Dr Niranjan Sahoo said collection of random samples for test will be undertaken with the help of forest and wildlife officials in different divisions and ranges to find out places where EEHV has spread.
“In the absence of any vaccine, we are also working on standardising the line of treatment,” he said and added that use of antiviral drug and platelet transmission are followed at present for the purpose.
Sahoo suggested the wildlife officials to work on addressing stress-related factors such as squeezing of vegetation, unsafe habitat and man-animal conflict to reduce the risk of herpes virus infection among sub-adult elephants.