A beloved matriarch of the Houston Zoo's elephant herd has become the first person in the world to receive a potentially life-saving vaccine.
Tess, a 40-year-old Asian elephant, was given the first-ever mRNA vaccine against elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) 1A on Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle reports.
The vaccine, which was developed by the zoo and Baylor College of Medicine in tandem with Texas Children's Hospital, will be administered to the rest of the Houston herd over the next few weeks to see if Tess is healthy enough to receive it.
Asian elephants are extremely vulnerable toEEHV 1A, which causes hemorrhaging and is fatal in 80% of cases.
Anti-viral drugs have tried to treat the disease, but in two-thirds of cases they don't work.
The Houston Zoo and Baylor College of Medicine have been working on a vaccine for 15 years.
"Tess is a beloved matriarch of our elephant herd," the zoo's general manager tells the Chronicle.
"She's been through a lot."
Asian elephants are animas, which are also elephants, and fewer than 50,000 of them are left in the wild.
They're currently listed as endangered, and breeding programs and research are vital to
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