Veterinary Services Department, Kenya Wildlife Service, Nairobi, Kenya.
Epidemiol Infect. 2013 Jul;141(7):1476-80. doi: 10.1017/S0950268813000022. Epub 2013 Jan 23.
Tuberculosis is emerging/re-emerging in captive elephant populations, where it causes morbidity and deaths, although no case of TB in wild African elephants has been reported. In this paper we report the first case of fatal TB in an African elephant in the wild. The infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis was confirmed by post-mortem and histological examinations of a female sub-adult elephant aged >12 years that died in Tsavo East National Park, Kenya, while under treatment. This case is unique in that during its lifetime the elephant had contact with both humans and wild elephants. The source of the infection was unclear because the elephant could have acquired the infection in the orphanage or in the wild. However, our results show that wild elephants can maintain human TB in the wild and that the infection can be fatal.
结核病正在圈养象群中出现/再现，导致发病和死亡，尽管尚未有报道称野生非洲象患有结核病。本文报告了首例野生非洲象的致命结核病病例。通过对一只 12 岁以上的雌性亚成体大象的死后和组织学检查，确认其感染了结核分枝杆菌。这例病例是独一无二的，因为在其一生中，这头大象与人以及野生大象都有过接触。感染源尚不清楚，因为大象可能是在孤儿院或野外感染的。然而，我们的结果表明，野生大象可以在野外携带人类结核病，并且这种感染可能是致命的。
