Roughly 50 hippopotamuses at Africa’s premier nature reserve died from anthrax poisoning, according to park officials.
The naturally occurring form of anthrax took down the behemoths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park — with officials warning that the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis could pose a threat to humans, the AFP reported.
A dead hippo lies in the water due to anthrax killing the animals in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo. via REUTERS
“Although this disease mainly affects wildlife, it poses a potential risk of transmission to humans as well as domestic animals,” the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservations, which manages the Virunga Park, said Tuesday to the outlet.
Dozens of river horses were found floating belly-up in a river
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