{"id":389605,"date":"2026-07-28T20:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/389605\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:46:08","slug":"houston-zoo-baylor-partnership-combats-deadly-elephant-virus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/389605\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Zoo, Baylor partnership combats deadly elephant virus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A new study from Baylor College of Medicine and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/news\/houston-texas\/trending\/article\/houston-zoo-habitat-upgrades-21284440.php\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">Houston Zoo <\/a>suggests an experimental vaccine may protect young Asian elephants from severe disease caused by elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus.<\/p>\n<p>The virus remains the leading cause of death among young Asian elephants in North American zoos and is an ongoing threat to elephant calves across Asia. After more than 15 years of work to combat the virus, researchers now have peer-reviewed evidence that elephants receiving the vaccine can endure natural infection with <a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC4248956\/\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">EEHV1A, one of the subgroups of the virus<\/a>, without developing severe hemorrhagic disease, the zoo announced in a news release.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis milestone represents years of dedication by researchers, veterinarians and elephant care professionals determined to protect future generations of elephants,\u201d Lisa Peterson, president and CEO of Houston Zoo, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>In the first study of the multiantigen mRNA vaccine, researchers tested it in nine Asian elephants at five zoological institutions, including Houston Zoo. The vaccine generated sustained immune responses against key viral proteins, according to the release.<\/p>\n<p>The research partnership between Houston Zoo and\u00a0Baylor College of Medicine has evolved into a global effort to combat the virus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEEHV has been one of the greatest threats facing young Asian elephants, and these findings offer real hope and bring us one step closer to changing the future for elephants,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new study from Baylor College of Medicine and the Houston Zoo suggests an experimental vaccine may protect&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-389605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}