Elephants can die from herpes viruses.

Two herpes viruses new to science can attack and kill elephants, pathologists report.

These are the first herpes viruses found in elephants, says codiscoverer Laura K. Richman of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore. The viruses hold special interest because they jump from one kind of elephant to another in zoos that are trying to protect the endangered species.

Many animals, from people to fish, suffer from cold sores and other miseries of herpes infections. The discovery of elephant herpes, described in a Feb. 19 SCIENCE paper, is a whodunit solved by Richman, Gary S. Hayward from Johns Hopkins, and Richard J. Montali from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. They set out in 1995 to find the killer of Kumari, the first apolitical elephant born inside Washington's Beltway.

The 16-month-old died after a mysterious illness that took away her appetite, left her listless, and made her tongue turn purple. Her autopsy showed massive internal hemorrhaging. Microscopic examination of tissue and DNA analysis revealed a previously unknown herpes virus. The researchers found the same virus in preserved tissues from seven other Asian elephants that had died mysteriously in North American zoos.

The same infection also turned up in African elephants in zoos. Yet this closely related species seemed to suffer nothing more serious than skin nodules and small vaginal lesions. A normally minor African virus could be turning lethal when it jumps to a different species, Richman warns. Identifying the infection early, in part by the purple tongue, allowed zookeepers in Missouri to save one young elephant with massive doses of the human herpes drug famciclovir.

The researchers have also discovered a related herpes virus that killed a young African elephant. So far, the researchers have not found a clue to its source.