Dirty breeding centre caused Malaysian rhino deaths

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Posted: 24 November 2003 1700 hrs

 

Dirty breeding centre caused Malaysian rhino deaths: report

 

KUALA LUMPUR : Laboratory results have revealed that the deaths of five rare

Sumatran rhinoceroses at a Malaysian breeding centre were caused by a

bacteria present only in an unclean environment, a report said on Monday.

 

The rhinos, which died within two weeks of each other, were suffering from

colisepticaemia, which is linked to E.coli, the New Straits Times said.

 

The bacteria are only present in unclean environments and visitors to the

centre noted that the animals were fed off the same floor they defecated on

and that general hygiene was poor, the paper reported.

 

Animals which could have been carriers of the killer bacteria, including

cockroaches, monkeys and rats also frequented the centre, it said.

 

The Sumatran rhinoceros is the smallest of the five types of rhino and one

of the world's rarest large mammals.

 

Only about 300 of the animals are left worldwide, mainly in Malaysia and

Indonesia, their numbers having been slashed to a dangerously low level by

poaching and the destruction of habitat.

 

The Sungai Dusun Sumatran Rhinoceros Conservation Centre in Selangor state,

where the animals died, had failed to achieve any rhino births in more than

a decade.