Bacterial infection likely cause of death of elephant in Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: The elephant which died at the Borneo Elephant Sanctuary on Wednesday (July 11) might have died due to a bacterial infection.

Sabah Wildlife Department director Augustine Tuuga said from the post mortem conducted on Thursday (July 12), it was found that the bull elephant  named Sapa had multiple organ dysfunction.

"Sapa was rescued in June and he was found to have deep cut wounds on his legs due to snare traps," he said.

He said though Sapa had seemed to be recovering, the post-mortem findings did not support the theory.

He said there were problems in the elephant's lungs, heart, liver, kidneys and intestines, adding that Sapa's death was due to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome which might be due to bacterial infection from the previous deep wound on its right forelimbs.

Sapa had collapsed in the morning and was given treatment with fluids, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory medicine.

The 20-year-old elephant did not respond to the treatment and died at 4pm.