The Toledo Zoo is grieving with a colossal heartbreak after Lucas, a young African elephant born there in 2011, died late Tuesday of a species-specific viral disease.
The zoo announced the death Wednesday afternoon with a video posted to social media. Lucas, who was to turn 10 years old this June, died of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, or EEHV.
“In recent years, elephants across the country have fought this disease, some surviving, some dying,” Jeff Sailer, the zoo’s president and chief executive, said in a video posted to social media. “Unfortunately, Lucas did not survive.”
A fact sheet provided by the zoo said EEHV, of which there are several strains, is found in wild and captive elephants. It is often dormant but can begin replicating in young elephants, causing acute hemorrhagic disease that damages the lining of blood vessels throughout the body. Blood loss through internal bleeding leads to organ damage, shock, and death.
Mr. Sailer told The Blade the virus isn’t well understood. The zoo does not know if Lucas was born with it or if he subsequently contracted it from his mother, Renee, a second adult female named Twiggy, or through his elder half-brother, Louie, who was born in Toledo in 2003 and transferred to Omaha in 2017.
“You can only find it if they’re actively shedding it,” Mr. Sailer said. “They have to be ill for you to determine that they have it.”
Lucas showed no physical or behavioral symptoms of illness. Staff first identified his elevated virus levels April 7 through its weekly viral testing and blood work for the elephants. He was immediately provided antiviral therapy and fluids, as well as daily plasma and whole blood infusions that began Thursday and Friday, respectively.
He also received pain killers and sedatives to keep him as comfortable as possible, and was carefully tended to around the clock by keepers and veterinarians and they remained with him when he died.
“These staff members have cared for him since he was in the womb,” Mr. Sailer said. “He was with the people who raised him, the people he trusted.”
Even with early identification and immediate treatment, EEHV has a high risk of death.
“Despite the heroic efforts of our staff, those caretakers of the animals themselves, the veterinary department, partners like ProMedica who help provide us with antiviral treatments, zoos across the country that provided whole blood and plasma to help with his treatment, unfortunately Lucas succumbed to the virus,” Mr. Sailer said.
Mr. Sailer said the virus should not pose a threat to the zoo’s adult females, “but in younger elephants like Lucas, it can be quite catastrophic.”
After he passed, Renee and Twiggy were allowed access to Lucas’ body to provide the social creatures the opportunity to grieve over him. His remains were then taken to Michigan State University for a full necropsy and testing, after which he will be cremated.
What leads to the virus causing clinical disease is being studied. It was believed for many years to affect only Asian elephants, although African elephants are known to carry it, Mr. Sailer said.
“Lucas’ death and what we will learn from the pathology reports will hopefully help other elephants in the future,” he said. “We don’t know that much about EEHV because not that many African elephants have succumbed to it.”
Following the EEHV-related death of two young African elephants at the Indianapolis Zoo in 2019, the Toledo Zoo created its weekly testing program, established and maintained a stockpile of antiviral medication, and banked plasma from the adult pachyderms. Veterinary and elephant care staff also attended a workshop on EEHV in Indianapolis in February, 2020.
“We were as prepared as we could possibly be and did everything we could possibly do,” Mr. Sailer said.
Lucas was born June 3, 2011, the second successful elephant birth in the Glass City. His name was chosen through a public contest in recognition of Lucas County taxpayers’ support of the zoo.
The zoo’s employee assistance program is providing on-site counselors for zoo staff to connect with if needed. Mr. Sailer said he expects a memorial of some kind will be created in Lucas’ memory sometime in the future.
First Published April 14, 2021, 7:01 p.m.
