Zoo, blood center join forces to save Houston’s elephants
An old piece of equipment that might have been gutted for its parts has been recycled intact as a weapon in Houston’s war on elephant herpes.
The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center donated the blood-spinning centrifuge, still in excellent condition, to the Houston Zoo. Veterinarians will use it to separate elephant blood components, which will speed up the treatment of the potentially deadly virus best known as elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus or EEHV.
“This is huge,” said Jackie Wallace, zoo public relations director. “It used to take our team 12 hours to manually separate the blood components. With the centrifuge, we’re down to 10 minutes, and with a sick elephant, every minute counts.”
The zoo staff will be able to bank plasma for future emergencies, too, she said. “Here at the Blood Center, we’re all about saving lives, and the elephants are a huge part of the Houston community,” said Joshua Buckley, spokesman. “We thought, ‘Hey, this is something we can do to make a difference.’ ”
EEHV has killed scores of adolescent Asian elephants in captivity and in the wild and has taken three Houston elephants — Singgah, Kimba and Mac — since 2000.
After Mac died, the zoo began working with scientists at Baylor College of Medicine to improve virus screening and treatment. A key part of that treatment involves transfusions of healthy elephant plasma to the sick calves. At the zoo, adult elephants already are trained to give blood, but it’s been a painstaking process to separate the plasma from red blood cells and platelets.
Paul Ling, a Baylor professor who works with the zoo staff in EEHV screening and treatment, said the centrifuge will allow the zoo staff to work faster and prepare better, higher quality plasma.
In the past few years, Ling has helped the zoo’s juvenile elephants, Baylor and Tupelo, overcome several bouts with EEHV.
Both are doing well, Ling said.