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 Thirty-four elephants have died in western Zimbabwe since Aug. 24,
Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director general Fulton
Mangwanya told a parliamentary committee in a statement on Monday.
Botswana blamed toxins produced by cyanobacteria for the deaths of
330 elephants this year.
Sometimes called blue-green algae, cyanobacteria are microscopic
organisms that are common in water and can produce toxins that
damage the liver or nervous system of animals and humans.
Scientists say the toxins are occurring more frequently as climate
change drives up global temperatures.
"Permits have been applied for, and we are ready to send samples to
the U.S.A. for DNA analysis... If necessary brain tissues will be
sent for analysis of the blue-green algae cyanobacteria toxins,"
Mangwanya said.
"All results to date point to the cause of these elephant deaths in
Zimbabwe being a disease known as hemorrhagic septicaemia."
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Zimbabwe is home to some 80,000 elephants, around a fifth of Africa's total,
conservationists estimate. Overall numbers have declined sharply in recent
years, mostly due to a combination of poaching, illegal hunting and drought.
Post mortems on some of the Zimbabwean elephants showed that they had inflamed
livers and lungs. The elephants were found lying on their stomachs, suggesting
an extremely sudden death, Mangwanya said.
Park officials have said that the biggest threat to Zimbabwe's elephant herd is
overpopulation and that lower rainfall this year could again leave the animals
facing starvation, after at least 200 died in 2019 from a lack of water and
food.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Nick Macfie
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