First reported case of fatal tuberculosis in a wild African elephant with past human–wildlife contact
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Date
2013Author
Obanda, V
Alasaad, S
Soriguer, R C
Omondi, P
Gakuya, F
Makumi, J
Waititu, K
Ngotho, M
Mulei, I
Yongo, M
Poghon, J
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Tuberculosis is emerging/re-emerging in captive elephant populations, where it causes morbidity
and deaths, although no case of TB in wild African elephants has been reported. In this paper
we report the first case of fatal TB in an African elephant in the wild. The infection with
Mycobacterium tuberculosis was confirmed by post-mortem and histological examinations of a
female sub-adult elephant aged >12 years that died in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya, while
under treatment. This case is unique in that during its lifetime the elephant had contact with both
humans and wild elephants. The source of the infection was unclear because the elephant could
have acquired the infection in the orphanage or in the wild. However, our results show that wild
elephants can maintain human TB in the wild and that the infection can be fatal.
Citation
Epidemiol. Infect., Page 1 of 5. f Cambridge University Press 2013 doi:10.1017/S0950268813000022Publisher
Department of Veterinary Pathology, Microbiology & Parasitology Faculty of Veterinary Medicine University of Nairobi