Anthrax outbreak

last updated 8 January 2015

Kampala, Uganda

Nearly 200 hippos have died of anthrax in Uganda in the last few months, wildlife officials said this week. The outbreak began in Queen Elizabeth National Park, where half of the country’s 10,000 hippos live, but it may have spread. At least 14 buffaloes have died of the disease. Some reports said that as many as 10 people had died after eating tainted hippo meat, but officials said that could not be confirmed. The anthrax bacterium occurs naturally in the soil in Uganda. German experts are working with Ugandan scientists to contain the outbreak.