FORT WORTH, Texas — If you've visited "Elephant Springs" at the Fort Worth Zoo, you might know Brazos, the adorable baby elephant who loves to stretch and play in the water.
But what you might not know is that at 2 years old, Brazos is already part of something historic.
Brazos is included in groundbreaking research into a fast-moving deadly virus that kills more Asian elephants than anything else, the zoo said. It's called elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, or EEVH.
"There is no cure right now," Dr. Sarah Cannizzo, associate veterinarian at the Fort Worth Zoo told WFAA.
The Asian elephant is the largest land mammal on the Asian continent, according to the World Wildlife Fund.
By the time the virus is identified in babies, they're often just hours from death.
"It might present as oh they’re a little stiff in one leg and then they can be dead 12-24 hours later," Cannizzo said.
Lead elephant trainer Christine Del Turco explained that antibodies passed down from their parents can help some.
"The first thing on our mind is that you hope they have antibodies," Del Turco told WFAA.
But still, there is no cure.
"It's something that’s always in the back of your mind," Del Turco continued. "And you sort of cross your fingers and hope you never have to go through that."
But baby Brazos could change that reality. He just recently became the fourth elephant in the world, the zoo said, and the first without antibodies, to receive a groundbreaking trial EEVH vaccine at least a decade in the making.
"It’s taken many years to get to the point where we’re putting it in elephants," Dr. Cannizzo said.
And so far, she told WFAA, the research looks promising.
"Maybe those days are behind us, or those cases will be fewer and further between."