Chai likely source of herpes virus death at OKC zoo

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Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland Jan 12, 2018

Jan 12, 2018

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                <h1>Chai likely source of herpes virus death at OKC zoo</h1>
                <h2><p>The tragedy around the sending of Seattle elephant Chai to Oklahoma City is adding a possible new layer. The Seattle Times, which has been outstanding in its coverage of the whole debacle, reports that, before Chai's recent death, she likely passed along the herpes virus that led to</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/joe-copeland-crosscut-com/">Joe Copeland</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Jan 12, 2018</time></p>
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            <p>The tragedy around the sending of Seattle elephant Chai to Oklahoma City is adding a possible new layer. The Seattle Times, which has been outstanding in its coverage of the whole debacle, <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/science/chai-was-likely-source-of-virus-that-killed-young-elephant-in-oklahoma-city/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">reports</a> that, before Chai's recent death, she likely passed along the herpes virus that led to the death of a 4-year-old elephant at the zoo. The younger elephant, Malee, died Oct. 1. It's not clear, though, whether Chai caught the virus from other elephants in Oklahoma or had carried a latent infection from Seattle.</p><p>As the <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/chai-suffered-injuries-weight-loss-months-before-her-death-in-oklahoma/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">Times reported</a> last weekend, Chai had lost just over 1,000 pounds between the time Woodland Park Zoo sent her to Oklahoma and her January death. The zoo decision to send Chai to Oklahoma <a href="http://crosscut.com/2015/03/will-woodland-parks-elephants-ok-oklahoma/?ref=dev.cascadepbs.org">came in the face of activist and politicians' pleas</a> to let the elephant go to a sanctuary; Woodland Park could have faced loss of accreditation from a group of other zoos if it had bowed to public sentiment.</p><p><em>This story has been updated since it first appeared to clarify details.</em></p>
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The tragedy around the sending of Seattle elephant Chai to Oklahoma City is adding a possible new layer. The Seattle Times, which has been outstanding in its coverage of the whole debacle, reports that, before Chai's recent death, she likely passed along the herpes virus that led to the death of a 4-year-old elephant at the zoo. The younger elephant, Malee, died Oct. 1. It's not clear, though, whether Chai caught the virus from other elephants in Oklahoma or had carried a latent infection from Seattle.

As the Times reported last weekend, Chai had lost just over 1,000 pounds between the time Woodland Park Zoo sent her to Oklahoma and her January death. The zoo decision to send Chai to Oklahoma came in the face of activist and politicians' pleas to let the elephant go to a sanctuary; Woodland Park could have faced loss of accreditation from a group of other zoos if it had bowed to public sentiment.

This story has been updated since it first appeared to clarify details.

By Joe Copeland

Joe Copeland is the former senior editor&nbsp;for Crosscut, where he has been an editor since 2010. Before that, he was an editorial writer and columnist for the Seattle P-I and editorial page edi