Botswana gets first test results on elephant deaths
GABORONE (Reuters) - Botswana said on Friday it had received test results from samples sent to Zimbabwe to determine the cause of death of hundreds of elephants but is waiting for more results from South Africa next week before sharing findings with the public.
Wildlife officials are trying to determine what is killing the elephants about two months after the first bodies were discovered. They have ruled out poaching and anthrax among possible causes.
Officials told reporters near the Okavango Delta on Thursday that they had now verified 281 elephant carcasses and that the deaths were concentrated in an area of 8,000 square km that is home to about 18,000 elephants.
"We have to wait for another set of results and reconcile the two to see if they are saying the same thing before we come to a definitive conclusion," Oduetse Kaboto, a senior official in the environment and tourism ministry, said in a televised briefing.
"We are hoping the second set of results will come in next week and that's when we should be able to communicate to the public the cause of deaths."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/botswana-gets-first-test-results-104226892.html