{"id":156979,"date":"2024-10-19T10:25:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T10:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/19\/officials-uncover-cause-of-death-of-nine-monkeys-who-died-in-two-days-at-hong-kong-zoo\/"},"modified":"2024-10-19T10:25:07","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T10:25:07","slug":"officials-uncover-cause-of-death-of-nine-monkeys-who-died-in-two-days-at-hong-kong-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/19\/officials-uncover-cause-of-death-of-nine-monkeys-who-died-in-two-days-at-hong-kong-zoo\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials uncover cause of death of nine monkeys who died in two days at Hong Kong zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Officials<\/div>


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Nine monkeys who died over two days at a zoo in Hong Kong had caught a bacterial disease, possibly as a result of recent digging work near their enclosure.<\/p>\n

On Sunday 13 October, eight monkeys were found dead, with another dying a day later<\/a><\/strong>, after they all displayed unusual behaviour and appetite.<\/p>\n

Officials launched an investigation at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, sealing off and disinfecting areas amid fears of a zoonotic disease.<\/p>\n

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\n A cotton-top tamarin monkey. Three of them died at Hong Kong’s oldest zoo following the outbreak. File pic: Reuters
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They have now said the animals died after being infected with melioidosis, which caused them to develop sepsis.<\/p>\n

This may have been as a result of recent digging near their enclosure, an official said.<\/p>\n

Secretary for culture, sports and tourism Kevin Yeung said that infections of this type often occur through contact with contaminated soil and water.<\/p>\n

“We’re saddened by the passing of the nine monkeys,” Mr Yeung said, adding there was thought to be no danger to humans of contracting it.<\/p>\n

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\n Image:<\/span>
\n A cordon around the enclosures of monkeys at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. Pic: AP
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The deceased animals were a De Brazza’s monkey, a common squirrel monkey, four white-faced sakis and three cotton-top tamarins – a species listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.<\/p>\n

The park had previously conducted work to repair irrigation pipes under a flower bed near the monkey enclosure earlier this month, and the deaths may be related to that, Mr Yeung said.<\/p>\n

“The incubation period for melioidosis in primates is about a week and this matched with the period after the soil digging work,” he said.<\/p>\n

Another explanation could be that some infected monkeys had close contact with other monkeys, he continued.<\/p>\n

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Or, he added, the monkeys might have been exposed to the bacteria after park staff had walked into the cages with possibly contaminated shoes.<\/p>\n

Another De Brazza’s monkey also displayed unusual behaviour and appetite but officials said that, as of Friday, its condition remained stable.<\/p>\n

Edwin Tsui, the controller of the centre, said the incident only took place in a single zone of Hong Kong’s oldest zoo.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nine monkeys who died over two days at a zoo in Hong Kong had caught a bacterial disease, possibly as a result of recent digging work near their enclosure. On Sunday 13 October, eight monkeys were found dead, with another dying a day later, after they all displayed unusual behaviour and appetite. Officials launched an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/10\/768x432\/skynews-cotton-top-tamarin-monkey_6720504.jpg?20241019104742","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3495,1860,6836,801,802,25034,120,11189,7812],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156979"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156981,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156979\/revisions\/156981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}