Kruger Park on alert after TB claims life of an elephant

Concerns abound that elephants at the Kruger National Park were at the risk of human-borne tuberculosis after one was killed by the disease.

To eliminate the fears, scientists at the country’s main national park were conducting tests on the animals.

On Wednesday, a team led by Professor Michele Miller from Stellenbosch University conducted tests on a young elephant.

Miller said they were hoping to sporadically test between 60 and 70 elephants in the park.

“We just opportunistically found it (disease) on an elephant that had recently died,” said Miller. “We conducted an examination on him and we were able to identify the bacteria, which is human TB.”

This was the first case of human TB bacteria in the park, she said. Only the bovine TB had been documented in various species in Kruger National Park before this case.

“Human TB in elephants has been documented in captive elephants in zoos around the world. Most recently it has been found in wild animals in India,” Miller said.

Human TB in animals appeared to be an emerging disease, she said. “TB is something we are trying to figure out; what the impact is on both the individual or the population. We don’t know if they can get infected and maybe cleared like people,” she added

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