At Least 50 Hippos Dead After Mysterious Viral Outbreak at Iconic National Park
Sick and dying hippos have reportedly been spotted floating on their sides or backs or hiding amongst foliage following an anthrax outbreak at the Virunga National Park in Africa's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Park director Emmanuel De Merode told Reuters earlier this week that at least 50 hippos and other large animals, such as water buffalo, have died after becoming infected with anthrax.Anthrax is an infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis bacteria which is commonly found in soil and can take hold through inhalation, contact with the skin, or intestinal absorption. Symptoms can begin as early as one day or as long as two months after the infection. Livestock and wild animals are the most frequently affected by anthrax, but the virus can be contracted by humans as well. "Although this disease mainly affects wildlife, it poses a potential risk of transmission to humans as well as domestic animals,' the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation (ICCN) told Agence France-Presse.
De Merode specified that, while park workers are confident anthrax is the cause of the deaths, they don't yet know how the animals became infected. He went on to detail the difficulty he and other park employees were having in attempting to remove the dead bodies from the water to give them a proper burial."It's difficult due to lack of access and logistics,' he said. 'We have the means to limit the spread (of the disease) by…burying them with caustic soda.'
Virunga National Park had already seen a precipitous drop in its hippo population before the outbreak of anthrax. 'Instability in the region' has seen the park's hippo population make a dramatic 95 percent plummet from a count of 29,000 in the 1970s. The park notes that hippos are often illegally poached "for their meat by armed groups and those in absolute poverty and for the ivory found in their teeth."
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