Technical Disease Card

Elephant endotheliotropic herpesviruses (EEHV) (Infection with)

  • Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV) is a double-stranded DNA virus that is classified in the family Herpesviridae, subfamily Betaherpesvirinae, genus Proboscivirus, and species Elephantid betaherpesvirus.
    EEHV causes acute, fatal haemorrhagic disease in wild and captive juvenile Asian and African elephants. If severe, EEHV can result in death within 24 hours of infection. Asian elephants are an endangered species, therefore EEHV poses a severe threat to conservation efforts. EEHV consists of eight genotypes that include EEHV1 through EEHV6, each varying in their lethality. EEHV strains exhibit some level of elephant species tropism:

    EEHV1, Asian species
    EEHV1A, Asian species
    EEHV1B, Asian species
    EEHV2, African species
    EEHV3, Asian and African species
    EEHV4, Asian species
    EEHV5, Asian species
    EEHV6, African species

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