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Sample collection for our pilot study at the Houston Zoo was a team effort!  This required the collaboration of the project coordinators, Alison, Tierra, Christine, and Kirsten, with the elephant keeper team and the veterinary team at the Houston Zoo, where nine elephants contributed to the study twice a week for 5 weeks. 

On each collection day, the elephant keepers collected whole blood, trunk washes, oral swabs, feces, chewed hay, and chewed browse from each elephant. The samples were then handed off to the veterinary team, who indexed and stored the samples until sample processing could begin.  

Thank you to the Houston Zoo elephant herd for participating in our study!

Blood was collected from one of the large ear veins (auricular vein) that elephants have.

Trunk washes were collected by pouring saline into the elephant's trunk and then instructing them to blow it back out into a large plastic bag. The goal is to collect mucus and cells from the lining of the trunk.

Oral swabs collected saliva from the mouth onto dacron-tipped applicators.

4 grams of feces were sampled from the outer edge and inside of the large fecal boluses that elephants produce.

Scraps of chewed hay and browse (things like oak branches or bamboo stalks) that had fallen from the elephants' mouths during eating were collected from each elephant.

Samples were stored in conical tubes in a -80 degree freezer until processing.


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About This Project

Elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus hemorrhagic disease (EEHV-HD) is the leading cause of death of young Asian elephants in North America and Europe, and suspected to occur in Myanmar. We will validate EEHV testing methods for feces and chewed plants, samples that can be easily collected, to enable a longitudinal study of EEHV epidemiology in captive and wild elephant herds in Myanmar. The ultimate goal is to identify management-related mitigation strategies for this devastating disease.

Blast off!

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