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Scientists have achieved a breakthrough in creating a new immunization to combat a deadly virus that targets young elephants.

The vaccine, produced by an global scientific group, aims to prevent the serious illness caused by EEHV, which is presently a primary cause of death in young Asian elephants.

In trials that involved adult elephants at the facility, the vaccine was found to be safe and, crucially, to stimulate components of the immune system that helps fighting viruses.

A lead scientist described this as "a pivotal step in our efforts to safeguard Asian elephants".

It is anticipated that the result of this pioneering study will open the door to preventing the fatalities of juvenile elephants from the dangerous condition caused by this virus.

Devastating Impact

EEHV has had a especially destructive impact in zoos. At Chester Zoo alone, multiple baby elephants have died to it over the past ten years. It has additionally been found in natural populations and in certain refuges and elephant orphanages.

It causes a bleeding disorder - unchecked bleeding that can be deadly within a day. It leads to death in more than 80% of cases in juvenile elephants.

Understanding the Threat

Why EEHV can be so dangerous is remains unclear. Many adult elephants host the virus - seemingly with no negative impact on their well-being. But it is believed that young elephants are particularly susceptible when they are being weaned, and when the protective defenses from the maternal nutrition decline.

At this stage, a calf's immune system is in a delicate balance and it can become overpowered. "It may lead to extremely serious illness," Dr Katie Edwards explained.

"It does affect wild elephants, but we lack an precise count of how many fatalities in total it has resulted in. For elephants in captivity however, there have been over a hundred deaths."

Immunization Creation

The research team, led by animal health experts, created the new vaccine using a proven "framework". Basically, the basic structure of this vaccine is the same to one routinely used to vaccinate elephants against a virus called a related virus.

The researchers seeded this immunization framework with proteins from EEHV - non-infectious parts of the virus that the elephant's defense system might recognise and react against.

In a world-first experiment, the team evaluated the new vaccine in several healthy, mature elephants at the zoo, then analysed blood samples from the innoculated animals.

The lead researcher stated that the findings, released in a scientific journal, were "better than we had hoped for".

"The results demonstrated, clearly that the vaccine was able to stimulate the generation of T cells, that are vital to fighting viral infections."

Future Steps

The subsequent phase for the scientists is to try the vaccine in more juvenile elephants, which are the animals most at risk to serious disease.

The current vaccination involves four injections to be given, so another aim is to work out if the equivalent effective amount can be given in a more straightforward way - perhaps with fewer jabs.

Dr Edwards clarified: "In the end we want to use this vaccine in the elephants that are at risk, so we want to ensure that we can get it to where it's needed."

The project lead added: "We believe this is a major advancement, and not necessarily only for the elephants, but because it also shows that you can develop and apply vaccines to help threatened animals."