Anthrax has caused a mass die-off of hippos living inside Africa’s oldest nature reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Officials at Virunga National Park report that at least 50 hippos, along with other large animals, were recently killed by the bacterial disease.
Media outlets reported on the hippo slaughter Tuesday, which appears to have begun last week. According to park park director Emmanuel de Merode, the hippos were found dead floating in a river south of Lake Edward. Though officials have reached the area, they haven’t been able to recover and bury the bodies yet.
“It’s difficult due to lack of access and logistics,” De Merode told Reuters. “We have the means to limit the spread (of the disease) by…burying them with caustic soda.”
Anthrax is caused by Bacillus bacteria, usually Bacillus anthracis. Its symptoms vary depending on how the bacteria enter the body, but the inhaled form of anthrax is especially dangerous. Without prompt antibiotic and antitoxin treatment, inhalation anthrax is nearly universally fatal in humans. This high fatality rate and its airborne potential has made anthrax one of the more concerning bioterror threats around.
Thankfully, natural anthrax is a rare disease in humans, and people typically catch it from infected animals or contaminated animal products. The bacteria can also lay dormant in the soil as spores, which can then be inhaled by both people and animals. Existing anthrax vaccines exist for livestock and people at higher risk of exposure (such as military personnel), but anthrax will occasionally cause mass die-offs of animals.
In 2017, for instance, anthrax is suspected to have killed over 100 hippos at the Bwabwata national park in northeast Namibia. In 2016, an outbreak in Russia killed more than 2,000 reindeer and a 12-year-old child. And in 2004, anthrax was responsible for killing around 300 hippos in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park.
These latest deaths are an especially heavy toll for the local hippo population. Over the past few decades, due to extensive poaching and war, the number of hippos in the park dwindled from 20,000 to a few hundred by 2006, according to Reuters. Conservation efforts since have steadily increased the population, though there are still only 1,200 hippos estimated to be living there.
Given the current transmission risk, the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservation has advised people living in the area to avoid wildlife and boil any water gathered from local sources for the time being.
