Elephants receive first of its kind vaccine

An elephant at the Houston Zoo is the first ever to receive a new vaccine to prevent herpesvirus. Elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus is the leading cause of death for Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) born in facilities in North America and also causes calf deaths in the wild in Asia. A 40-year-old female received the new mRNA vaccine, which is expected to help the animal boost immunity, though the developers don’t expect it will necessarily cure the disease. “Elephants are incredibly intelligent keystone species that are critical to their ecosystems and worth saving,” said Colossal’s Matt James, the chief animal officer at Colossal, in a press release. Colossal is a de-extinction company that helped provide research for the development of this vaccine.