Testing times for Malaysia's elephants
THE male elephant calf named Jimbo was a media darling. Rescued at a mere two weeks old after it was found wandering alone on an estate in Sg Lokan, Sabah, in 2014, the playful pachyderm would cosy up to its caregivers and gulp down 2.5 litres of milk in one go.

A “sweet, naughty little giant”, was how one of Jimbo’s caregivers described the animal.

Jimbo, with another male calf, Tun Tan – also a rescue after it followed a tractor back to workers’ quarters – were once caught on camera suckling milk greedily from bottles held by their caregivers, leading to a cuteness overload that brought fame.

But two years later, in 2016, both calves were dead, along with another male rescue from Telupid, Sabah.

What could have caused these elephant calves to die within days of each other? It was the biggest mystery at the animals’ home at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, some 25km from Sandakan on Sabah’s east coast. Various theories abounded, including the possibility of snake bites.

Five years and much research later, a paper published in the Virology Journal indicated that the calves had died from elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus haemorrhagic disease, commonly known as EEHV HD.

Jimbo died within 24 hours of the onset of clinical signs for the disease, followed by the third calf slightly a week later, then Tun Tan two days after that, according to a case report titled The First Reported Cases of Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus Infectious Haemorrhagic Disease in Malaysia.

While the highly destructive disease is the leading cause of deaths among captive Asian elephant calves in Asia, North America, and Europe, this case among the Bornean calves was the first time that the virus was ever detected in Malaysia.

The problem is – it has now also been found among captive elephants in Peninsular Malaysia, according to a more recent study.

On red alert

A scenic two-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur along the East Coast Expressway gets you to the National Elephant Conservation Centre in Kuala Gandah, Lanchang, Pahang. It’s a popular spot for daytrippers and nature lovers who want to take a closer look at these giants.

Visitors to the Kuala Gandah conservation centre observing a calf being led down to the river for a bath. — Sabah Wildlife DepartmentThere are an estimated 1,500 Pak Belalai, as they’re called locally, in Peninsular Malaysia, in addition to another 1,000 to 1,500 individuals in Sabah, where they are called Nenek, Aki, and Liman by different native peoples.

Listed as endangered on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List since 1986, Asian elephants are currently facing a range of threats, from poaching and habitat fragmentation to being run over by vehicles or the occasional train.

According to Malaysia’s Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan), the screening for EEHV among its charges in Kuala Gandah is one of the objectives in the country’s National Elephant Conservation Action Plan 2.0.

“This is to increase our ability to monitor the elephants’ health in captivity,” it says in an emailed reply to queries from The Star.

“With the results of the screening, measures on prevention and treatment can be taken.”

In February and September 2020, researchers had carried out two samplings on captive elephants in the centre. On both occasions, 222 samples from 33 individuals – 17 adults, nine subadults, six juveniles, and a calf – were collected, comprising trunk wash, whole blood, and oral and rectal swab samples.

According to the study, a “molecular detection approach was taken by utilising a polymerase chain reaction amplification targeting the polymerase U38 gene region; this revealed that 12 of the 33 individuals were EEHV-positive, spanning ages from two months to 15 years and involving both sexes”.

“This marks the initial identification of EEHV and subclinical infections in captive elephants in Peninsular Malaysia, emphasising the need for urgent and enhanced healthcare management to safeguard these magnificent animals for better conservation management strategies in the future,” added the study.

Despite being EEHV-positive, however, the elephants displayed good health, indicating asymptomatic infections of EEHV, the study found.

The paper, Detection of Subclinical EEHV Infection in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Peninsular Malaysia Through a Molecular Approach, was published in the peer-reviewed online journal Veterinary Integrative Sciences earlier this year. The authors of the paper are Millawati Gani, Kayal Vizi Karuppannan, Mohd Firdaus Ariff Abdul Razak, and Ahmad Azhar Mohammed, all from Perhilitan.

The study said the case in Sabah raised concerns about potential infections among elephants in Peninsular Malaysia, thus prompting a call for comprehensive screening and monitoring efforts of the disease. The surveillance of EEHV in Malaysia, added the study, remains inadequate.

“It is crucial to establish early detection capabilities for infections within the Asian elephant population in Peninsular Malaysia. Early detection is important and the data can be used as a baseline database for elephant captive management,” the researchers said.

Screening calls

EEHV is a type of herpesvirus, which can cause a highly fatal haemorrhagic disease when transmitted to young Asian elephants, with some types killing up to 80% of affected animals.

While it can be treated with the rapid application of antiviral drugs, treatment is only effective in around a third of the cases.

The tests conducted in the study, says Perhilitan, was the first time that it had carried out screening for EEHV among elephants using the molecular technique.

“The technique has managed to identify positive cases among the captive elephants. It’s hard to detect the disease by physical checks alone and infected animals don’t show any early symptoms.

“So the department does not have any data on elephant deaths due to EEHV before the molecular screening was carried out,” Perhilitan says.

Moving forward, the department indicates more screenings for EEHV are on the horizon.

“Screening for the virus has been and will continue to be carried out for all elephants in captivity.

“For wild elephants, Perhilitan has been collecting samples from these animals during translocation operations since 2021 to be screened for diseases, including EEHV.”

University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants project principal investigator Assoc Prof Wong Ee Phin says the efforts carried out by Perhilitan and Sabah Wildlife Department should be lauded, encouraged, and further supported.

“We need more medical research capacity to monitor both captive and wild elephants, especially in the development of noninvasive methods that do not require blood testing or trunk wash samples.

“By having resources and capacity to carry out research, we can better understand the status of these elephant populations,” she points out.

Wong says she has often heard of EEHV reported as the cause of death for baby and juvenile elephants in captivity.

“Many leading zoos and wildlife medical facilities around the world have dedicated resources to finding a cure for this virus, but this is largely still in development.

“This particular study by Perhilitan has highlighted that the risk of EEHV does exist for the captive elephant population in Peninsular Malaysia,” she says.

Wong says that although the study found that some captive elephants did not show clinical symptoms despite carrying different variants of the virus, a two-month-old baby elephant that was rescued from the wild actually succumbed to the virus and died.

“Not much is known about the effect of EEHV on wild populations of Asian elephants, but researchers know that not all baby and juvenile elephants in the wild manage to survive to adulthood.

“There are cases of disease, injuries or baby elephants getting left behind by their herd, but more study in the field is still needed to ascertain the proportion in the population that is affected.”

Wong reminds us that death by vehicular accident remains a problem for wild elephants, both in the peninsula as well as in Sabah.

“We have seen cases of vehicle-elephant collision that killed baby and juvenile elephants, and resulted in damage to vehicles, human injuries, and in one particular case in Peninsular Malaysia, the car driver was killed.

“So very tragic.”
Environment,Animals,disease,threatened,virus,Peninsular Malaysia,Sabah
Wildlife authorities will now have to screen wild elephants in Peninsular Malaysia after testing at a sanctuary found the presence of a dreaded virus among the younger animals.