- KAMPALA (AFP) -- At least
25 hippopotami have died of a mysterious disease in Uganda's sprawling
Queen Elizabeth National Park, authorities said today.
-
- "We have sent experts to get samples from the carcasses
and live ones to investigate the cause of these strange deaths," the
Uganda Wildlife Authority's executive director Arthur Mugisha told AFP
by telephone.
-
- He said the team includes veterinary doctors and officials
from the agriculture ministry, adding that an EU-supported disease control
program was already on the ground to study the suspected soil-borne disease.
-
- Mr Mugisha said the deaths began late last month, when
game officials found five dead hippos one day and three the next, which
he said "was out of the ordinary."
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- He said the sampling would take nearly a week, followed
by several days of diagnosis and analysis in the capital Kampala.
-
- More than 10,000 flamingos died in a park in northern
Tanzania in June and July, also from an unknown disease.
-
- © The Australian
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