UPDATE
Sep 13, 2024 12:00 AM CDT
The devastating shigella outbreak at a Florida zoo has claimed a fourth victim. A 3-year-old gorilla, Kevin, has died from the bacterial ailment that first claimed his grandmother, a 35-year-old gorilla, and then a pair of bonobo brothers at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, the zoo announced Tuesday. Kevin was treated "intensively" for shigella for 20 days before he succumbed to the illness, News4Jax reports. Doctors who typically treat humans, not animals, were even brought in to help, Action News Jax reports. The zoo says there were times that someone was with him around the clock, administering treatments every few hours. "But then, in the long run, his little body just couldn't fight off the infection," the zoo's curator of mammals says. One of the zoo's remaining apes is ill, but doing OK, and the others so far appear to be healthy, officials say. It is still unclear how the outbreak started.
Aug 29, 2024 6:18 AM CDT
A Florida zoo is mourning the deaths of three of its resident apes after they contracted a fatal intestinal infection. Per NBC News, Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens announced on Aug. 22 "with profound heartbreak" that a 35-year-old female western lowland gorilla named Bulera had died of shigella, a contagious illness that wreaks havoc on the intestines, causing such symptoms as bloody diarrhea, cramps, fever, and nausea or vomiting.
Zoo officials on Monday had a sad update: Two bonobos that were brothers, Jumanji (born in 1996) and Jenga (2011), had also succumbed to the "highly contagious" disease after it spread to other primates. "Both bonobos had existing heart conditions, which made them more vulnerable to shigella," the zoo said, adding that its animal care team was working hard to treat other apes "at various stages of treatment and recovery."
story continues below
The zoo notes that the disease "usually spreads through contact with feces, food, or water," and that apes in particular have a more difficult time fighting it off. It says on its site that the infection began among its gorilla population but spread to the bonobos "due to timesharing spaces. ... As soon as symptoms were discovered, quarantine was put into place." It adds in its Facebook statements that "although we may never know the exact source, the bacteria may have come from an asymptomatic ape or, though unlikely, a staff member." (More shigella stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
