Saving Elephants: The Race to Fight EEHV (Episode 3)

Saving animals in the wild. That’s what we’re doing here in Houston. On this #WorldElephantDay, we’re sharing an update on how we’re saving elephants in our next EEHV docuseries episode. For the past 15 years, we’ve worked with our friends at Baylor College of Medicine to develop a treatment protocol and vaccine for EEHV (elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus), a devastating viral disease in Asian and African elephants. Last summer – after years in the making – we administered the first-ever mRNA vaccine for EEHV 1A to our female Asian elephant, Tess. Since then, we’ve given the vaccine to two other elephants and helped our friends at other AZA zoos. Dr. Christine Molter, our animal health director, shares “This is a tremendously rewarding experience that’s going to not only save one animal’s life but potentially play a role in saving many animal lives in the future.” Hear from our team and Dr. Paul Ling at BCM in our latest episode.