Second elephant dies from virus at Dublin Zoo

Relatively little is known about EEHV, which affects both wild and captive Asian elephants.

The virus often lies latent in elephants and can be triggered without warning, as it is carried asymptomatically.

EEHV was discovered in 1990 and formally characterised in 1999, external by researchers at the Smithsonian Zoo in Washington DC.

They linked 10 cases of a “highly fatal haemorrhagic disease” in young Asian and African elephants in zoos.

In each case, they found “herpes virus-like particles” in cells of dead elephants’ hearts, livers and tongues.

Since then, the virus has ripped through elephants populations in zoos. It has caused more than half of the deaths of Asian elephants in European and North American zoos over the last four decades.

It has now been detected in sanctuaries, safari parks and, more worryingly, in wild elephant herds in nine countries, including in India, Nepal and Myanmar.