Taronga Zoo Pak Boon the elephant has TB

C

Coquinguy

Well-Known Member
Checking out Taronga's website this afternoon, and the zoo has released a website regarding Pak Boon's health. Veterinarians have established that she has Tuberculosis. Heres hoping for a quick return to full health.
Other interesting, a media release categorically denying any intent to sell TWPZ? what has prompted this???
 
That's bad news. Let's hope that the vets can conquer this quickly.

Don't expect any more ele imports any time soon, now.

TWPZ for sale? Jarkari, have you made an offer?!!!

Thanks for this news, glyn.
 
youre welcome steve, too bad it was bad on both counts, the TWPZ thing worries me because something has motivated it. and a kennerley govt bank balance, haemoraging badly and privatising everything would probably consider selling off a zoo that isnt making much money
 
That is very sad news :(

Hope she gets better and all the best to her, the rest of the herd, and the keepers.
 
Don't worry about TWPZ Glyn. The first anyone heard of a sale was an unconfirmed local news report. I missed the report however was told it eluded to village roadshow as an alternative to werribee. The report went to air before the zoo could respond.
 
glyn said:
youre welcome steve, too bad it was bad on both counts, the TWPZ thing worries me because something has motivated it. and a kennerley govt bank balance, haemoraging badly and privatising everything would probably consider selling off a zoo that isnt making much money
Click to expand...

I wouldn't worry about a TWPZ sale. It is such a grossly underperforming property that no commercial institution would take it on as a gift.

Village Roadshow is hurting to the point that they have offloaded their underperforming assets at bargain basement prices. Can't imagine their share-holders approving of them taking on another lemon. Unless, of course, VR tries to pitch one of their "get it for nothing" type management deals.

In the meantime, nobody will do anything until after your State election. All government departments have been ordered to do nothing at all rather than risk rocking the boat.
 
Jarkari said:
Don't worry about TWPZ Glyn. The first anyone heard of a sale was an unconfirmed local news report. I missed the report however was told it eluded to village roadshow as an alternative to werribee. The report went to air before the zoo could respond.
Click to expand...

So, it wasn't you JT?
 
No, I was offered alot more for my camels then I was expecting but not quite enough for a large government zoo. ;)
 
Johnny said:
What is TWPZ exactly?
Click to expand...

Taronga Western Plains Zoo.

It is the Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo in rural New South Wales. Because it is the country campus of Taronga Zoo in Sydney, and because it has been achieving declining vistor numbers for several years, the spin-meisters decided to jazz up it's name.

They succeeded in confusing many potential visitors but have yet to increase the visitation numbers.

Had they simplified it's name and just called it Dubbo Zoo , like eveyone else does, they may have had a better chance of success. That's assuming that it's decline can be attributed to its name alone - which is not necessarily so.
 
Does anyone want to give a informed summary on what effect short and long term the diagnosis of Tuberculosis will or may have on the Sydney herd?

Seems to be a overload of information when l googled for a answer.
 
Last edited:
In the Kolmarden situation,not all herd members carried TB.It was a request from their Dept of agriculture that brought about the euthanaisia of the herd.If TB isn't treated there is the risk of herd members becoming infected and the treatment is gruelling.It could occur for 12 months with treatments occurring rectally twice a day.This is intensive for elephant and keepers.Not to cast blame but this is where research for exotics becomes invaluable as the current testing methods are poor and don't give conclusive results unless the individual is shedding.I wish Taronga good luck with this unfortunate event.
 
How would an elephant contract T.B. in this sort of situation?

Would she have carried it with her on importation, or contracted it in Taronga?
 
the zoo believes that she contracted it in Thailand and it has lay dormant in her system until the stress of Tukta's birth brought it on. it is a terrible thing, but I guess whatever we learn from this from a treatment point of view could prove valuable in the future if this started endangering wild populations.
 
Unfortunately TB is in wild populations.Several elephants in the USA have been treated for the disease with a positive result and are currently TB free today.I reckon with the veterinary staff at Taronga,that this thing won't beat them.I worked with them some time ago and they were good back then so there is hard work ahead but the result will be a TB free breeding cow and mother raised calf.Good luck.
 
It's scary because both these institutions with TB have young and genetically valuable calves. (0.1 Biopark 2.1 Taronga) Thank god it hasn't spread to the rest of the herd. But according to the articles released for both incidents they are taking treatment well and are able to be with the rest of their herds! Catastrophe aborted x2
 
@ Dallaspachyderm, it is rather naive to think that just because the other elephants in Taronga and Albuquerque have tested negative so far, the infection hasn`t spread.

Pak Boon is actually the perfect and frightening example how very dangerous TB is, she has been extensivly tested for all possible diseases and quarantined for years and they STILL didn`t catch that she has TB until now, almost 4 years after the import. That the other elephants in Taronga tested negative until now does in no way guarantee they are TB free. And if she should test negative again after treatment, that will not guarantee she really is TB free. The only way to know for sure if an elephant has TB or not in a necropsy after death :(

If you research the topic a bit (there is quite some good information availible in the net), you`ll see that trunk washes are notoriously unreliable, and the newer blood tests are promising and a lot better, but there is not much experience with them to know how reliable they are and if it is possible to detect which elephants are actually sick, which react to the tests because they were being exposed to the bacterium without getting infected, and which have sucessfully cured.

Given these problems, Taronga and the Australian elephant program are in big trouble because they may not be allowed to transfer any elephants out of Taronga for many years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top