Copenhagen Zoo: – The baby elephant was terminally ill
The baby elephant Mun has been fighting for her life for the past few weeks after she was struck by a violent bleeding disease called elephant herpes EEHV.
Danes write it TV 2.
Copenhagen Zoo describes the disease as both aggressive and complex. Most often it ends with the death of infected baby elephants.
Only 15 percent of those infected will survive.
Bad odds
In other words, it was a battle with bad odds that little Mun gave up when she was confirmed to be infected at the beginning of December.
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According to Danish TV 2, the treatment of the little elephant cost around 211,000 Norwegian kroner.
Among other things, the baby elephant has been given large amounts of fluids, painkillers, antibiotics, anti-viral medicine and blood plasma from other elephants in Copenhagen Zoo.
– Unbelievably relieved
Well, director Mads Bertelsen is incredibly relieved that Mun seems to survive:
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– All the critical parameters we measure are normalized. Therefore, it is unlikely that she will die from the virus, says Bertelsen to TV 2 Lorry and continues:
– We are delighted that the many hours of hard work, and the little elephant’s resilience, have taken us to where we are now. We are incredibly relieved about that.
Died of the disease
It is the second time in a short time that one of the elephants at Copenhagen Zoo has been diagnosed with elephant herpes. In August, the male elephant Plaisak died of the disease.
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The director says that it is a difficult disease to detect, but that they found it earlier in Mun, even as they did with the male elephant Plaisak.
Well, Mun is back in the elephant enclosure again. Bertelsen says it will take three weeks before she is in top form again.