PORTLAND — A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says seven staff members at the Oregon Zoo tested positive for tuberculosis after an outbreak among three elephants started in 2013.
The seven had a latent form of the respiratory disease and displayed no symptoms. Roughly 5 percent of the captive Asian elephants in North America are infected with the disease that’s generally spread when someone coughs or sneezes.
Bob Lee is the zoo’s elephant curator. He tells The Oregonian that the infected elephants were put on a monthlong round of treatment and the zoo enacted safety measures, such as keeping the public at least 100 feet away.
Two of the three elephants were later euthanized because of painful injuries, not TB.
