TDK conference 2021

Post-mortem reports are a way to understanding diseases, and their processes, to help the future generations. This retrospective study looked at the reports of 226 Asian (Elephas maximus) and 110 African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria. The reports were based between 1990 until, inclusively, 2018, and the most important lesions were summarised. For the Asian elephants, most deaths occurred before the age of one, followed by 41 to 50 and then the ages of 1 to 5. The most common lesions for these elephants consisted of infectious diseases, specifically the elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus and Clostridium spp., followed by musculoskeletal and then circulatory lesions. Musculoskeletal lesions were most commonly a kind of arthropathy, arthrosis or pododermatitis. Circulatory lesions included cardiovascular failure as well as atherosclerosis. Most of the African elephant mortalities occurred between 21 to 30, followed by 11 to 20 and 31-40, followed by neonatal. Most lesions in the African elephants were seen in the circulatory system, which included myocardial infarct, circulatory failure, splenopathy and cardiac petechiae. The digestive system followed including inflammation of the digestive tract, hepatopathies as well as haemorrhages. Lesions caused by infectious diseases were the third most common, including clostridiosis and tuberculosis.