After being infected by a virus, four elephants have died at the Nandanakanan Zoo in Odisha. The government of Odisha is seeking help from experts in Assam and Kerala regarding the matter. The four elephant claves died because of the Endotheliotrophic Herpes Virus within a span of one month. Similar incidents have happened in Assam and Kerala in the past. 

No vaccine to prevent the infection 

There happens to be no medicine or vaccine to keep in check the spread of the virus. Thus the government is seeking assistance from experts in order to contain the outbreaks. Forest and Environment Minister of Odisha, Bikram Arukha mentioned that the state government has contacted experts in Assam and Kerala where a similar virus killed several elephants in the past to take stock of the situation. There is a total of eight elephants in the Nandanakanan Zoo out of which the Endotheliotrophic Herpes Virus has claimed the lives of half of them.

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Efforts to save the remaining elephants 

Bikram Arukha said that continuous efforts are being made to save the remaining elephants. The last death, reported on Friday, was of a female elephant calf named Gauri. Gauri succumbed to the infection caused by the Endotheliotrophic Herpes Virus. Gauri was brought to the Nandankanan Zoo from Athagarh Forest Range in 2012. The EEHV mostly affects elephant calves below 15 years of age.

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Out of the remaining four elephants, three are adults. The Minister also reiterated that blood samples will be collected to ensure that the EEHV has not spread to the wild also because most of the elephants were brought from different forests of the state. The Deputy Director of Nandankanan Zoo, Jayant Das, said that all precautionary measures are being taken to save the lives of the remaining elephants in the zoo. It is not clear whether the virus has also affected the remaining elephants, he added. The first fatality due to EEVH had occurred in a three-year-old elephant from a Swiss circus in 1988, said a veterinary doctor in Bhubaneswar’s Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology. Following this many Asian elephants in North America and Europe succumbed to the deadly infection.  

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