Grassroots Vol 20 No 3 | Page 36

NEWS
Mycotoxins in water may have
caused Botswana elephant
death
No definitive answers have yet
been found for the mass die-off
of elephants in Botswana since
May this year.
Early research results have suggested,
however, that the deaths could be attributed
to a naturally occurring toxin.
This emerged in a recent investigative
paper published in the African Journal
for Wildlife Research by a team
of researchers from South Africa and
Pakistan, who aimed to gain an understanding
of the cause of death of
more than 350 elephants in that country.
Dr Gerhard Verdoorn, CropLife SA’s
operations and stewardship manager,
told Farmer’s Weekly it was highly likely
that the deaths were caused by mycotoxins
from infected water sources.
The mycotoxins severely affected the
neurological system, resulting in rapid
death. This could explain why some
of the elephants collapsed mid-stride
and caved in on their knees.
Annelie Coleman
Reprinted From: https://bit.ly/356UOUc
Carcasses were first found in the Okavango
Panhandle region, and blood
samples had since been tested by
scientists in Zimbabwe, the US, and at
the University of Pretoria’s Faculty of
Veterinary Science in South Africa.
In the paper, the team observed that
the death of the elephants in Botswana
“was indiscriminate in line with
their age and gender, while death for
some was sudden, as elephants were
found collapsed forward onto their
chests, tusks in the ground, rather
than on their sides.
Figure 1: There are indications that the recent deaths of more than 350 elephants
in Botswana can be attributed to mycotoxins from infected water sources. ©
Denene Erasmus
Viral and bacterial agents that could
precipitate species-specific mortalities
on this scale, potential environmental
sources of poisoning, and the
samples and tests that would assist
in excluding/confirming these candidate
causes were considered”.
Botswana’s elephant population of
130 000 had been stable for the past
25 years.
Considering that yearly mortalities of
between 3 000 and 4 000 individuals
should be associated with this stable
population size, the writers argued
that the loss of some 400 elephants
was unlikely to negatively impact the
broader elephant population.
Their concern was, however, that the
current wave of elephant mortalities
would continue and spread to other
areas.
A second consideration was that a
similar mass mortality event would
affect small and isolated elephant
populations, which would not be able
to withstand the loss of so many individuals,
the paper said.
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Grassroots Vol 20 No 3 September 2020