Photo: Pixabay | Rico Lotze
Dr Ulf Tubbesing, owner and wildlife veterinarian at Wildlife Vets Namibia, who provides wildlife-related services for game farmers and conservation bodies across the country, said they first received reports of these unusual giraffe mortalities in late April.
The affected region is vast, with reported deaths stretching from north of Okahandja and Omaruru, including the Waterberg, Outjo, and as far east as Maroelaboom. Tubbesing said there has also been a high mortality rate in the Etosha National Park, suggesting that the phenomenon is not limited to animals on private land.
While no formal survey has yet captured the full extent of the outbreak, Tubbesing estimated that the number of dead giraffes could exceed 200. Some farms have recorded over 20 deaths, and with many deaths likely going unnoticed or unreported, the true scale remained uncertain.
The issue continues to escalate, with new cases still being reported as recently as this week.
“Yesterday I was called by a farmer near Omaruru with two critically sick giraffes, and today another farmer in that area called [as] they [had] just shot a giraffe with severe eye lesions and lumpy skin disease. So the outbreak has not subsided, and despite a couple of cold spells, insects still occur in relatively high numbers,” Tubbesing told Farmer’s Weekly.
The root cause of the mortalities remains undetermined, and while Tubbesing has conducted post-mortems on some of the animals, findings have so far varied.
“I only managed to do two post-mortems on sick giraffes that were euthanised, and these two cases had different findings, so I can’t be sure that both were affected by the same condition,” he explained. “In a few cases, farmers reported lumpy skin disease lesions on the giraffe. [It’s] not yet possible to say to what extent this is significant.”
Other recorded symptoms in affected giraffes have included opaque eyes, skin lesions, severe emaciation, and lung abnormalities.
“We don’t have an answer yet,” Tubbesing said. “I suspect that this is some insect-borne neurotropic viral infection. We experienced very heavy insect loads in April and May.”
Laboratory testing has ruled out several known culprits, including rabies, anthrax, and botulism. Plant toxicity is also considered unlikely due to the good rain and the diversity of vegetation in the areas where giraffes have died.
“As far as I am aware, this is the first time something like this has occurred,” Tubbesing said.
“This may be a once-in-a-decade or lifetime event, or it may become a regular disease, like rabies in kudu and eland in Namibia. We just don’t know. Time will tell.”
The next step is to obtain a clear diagnosis.
“First, [we need] to get a diagnosis and then [we can] plan for the future,” he added.
