In 1993, the World Health Organization declared the tuberculosis epidemic to be a global emergency. Since that time, 5 distinct strains of human TB have been identified in 8 different captive elephant groups throughout the United States. Circus elephants are known carriers of human TB, and come into frequent contact with the public through elephant rides and exhibitions. The disease is entirely transmissible to humans, and eleven circus workers have already tested positive for TB following contact with infected elephants.

How did circus elephants contract human strains of TB?

Reports of Tuberculosis in elephants date back for many years, and it is not yet fully understood how the disease was first transmitted. The strains of TB that are found in captive elephants are entirely transmissible to humans (and vice versa). Therefore, it is possible that circus elephants first contracted the disease from circus workers.

It is known that people with lowered immune systems are far more susceptible to contracting TB. Given the traumatic and stressful lifestyle endured by captive performing elephants, it is understandable that they continue to become infected. Certainly, the crowded, humid, unventilated boxcars and warehouses in which captive elephants are often kept create a fertile breeding ground for TB.

Which Circuses have had TB outbreaks?

Since 1996, using DNA fingerprinting, scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have identified 5 distinct strains of human TB in 8 different elephant groups in California, Illinois, Arkansas, Florida and Missouri.

Two of the major circuses that operate in Canada are the Super cirque de Montreal (performances every Christmas at the Montreal Molson Center and Ottawa Corel Center) and the Shrine Circus (performances each summer across Canada). The Super cirque de Montreal leases its elephant acts from the Illinois based Hawthorn Corporation, while the Shriners hire the Missouri based Tarzan Zerbini Circus to stage their circuses. Hawthorn also leases out their elephant and tiger acts to Tarzan Zerbini and a number of other traveling circuses.

Hawthorn Corporation
The Hawthorn Corporation, based in Richmond, Illinois, is a business that rents out elephant and tiger acts to traveling circuses and other events. In 1997, Hawthorn's entire herd of 18 elephants was quarantined for TB treatment. Fourteen of the eighteen Hawthorn elephants were determined by the United States Department of Agriculture to have "most likely" contracted the disease. The four others were felt to be at moderate or low risk of having TB. Four of Hawthorn's elephants have died of this contagious, human strain of tuberculosis. Two of them, Joyce and Hattie, were forced to give elephant rides to children right up until their deaths in 1996. Joyce's necropsy showed that the disease was in its advanced stages, and that 80-90% of her lungs had been destroyed. No one knows how many people have been infected at Hawthorn performances, but eleven Hawthorn employees have tested positive for TB.

Tarzan Zerbini Circus
In January 1997, an internal USDA document revealed that animals owned by Tarzan Zerbini Circus might have been exposed to Hawthorn Corporation elephants who tested positive for tuberculosis. In November of 1999, two elephants used by Tarzan Zerbini were quarantined for testing. In July, 2002, Agriculture Canada ordered the quarantine and deportation of Tarzan Zerbini elephants that were performing in the Shrine Circuses across Canada. It was revealed that the elephants had previously been exposed, through sustained contact, to a TB positive elephant, and as such were considered to pose a public health risk. The elephants were returned to the Zerbini headquarters in Missouri for treatment. Notably, the Tarzan Zerbini elephants performed in several locations across Ontario, including Windsor and London, prior to being returned to the US. It has been confirmed that elephant rides were provided for children in at least some of these locations.

Can I catch Tuberculosis from a contagious circus elephant?

Yes. While TB is not the easiest disease to catch (chances of contracting it correlate to the amount of exposure you have), no one can guarantee that you will not catch TB from an infected circus elephant. We have no way of ensuring that a given elephant is not fully contagious at any time, given that tests are administered only once per year (see below). The fact that the Canadian government deported TB exposed elephants from Canada demonstrates that they consider them to pose a health risk.

While there is little study on the transmission of TB from circus elephants to the general public, it is important to note that at least 11 Hawthorn workers tested positive for TB following the elephant outbreak http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol4no2/adobe/mic.pdf. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to identify individuals who had contracted the disease at the circus, given that TB can often take weeks or months to develop following exposure. We may never know the number of people who have been affected.

Given the seriousness of the global TB epidemic, Global Action Network believes that it is irresponsible for governments to allow the circus industry to continue exhibiting TB exposed animals for something as frivolous as entertainment.

How is it determined if an elephant has TB?

To determine if an elephant is TB positive, a test called a "trunk wash" is administered. The elephants are trained to inhale saline solution into their trunks, and then blow it back out into a receptacle. The sample is then sent to a lab, where the TB bacteria can be isolated (in a positive test). If the test is positive, all elephants that have been exposed to the TB positive elephant must undergo testing and treatment.

For more information on testing procedures, please consult the USDA Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Elephants at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ac/ElephTBGuidelines2000.html.

Is the test accurate?

No. The USDA freely admits that the test is not an accurate determination of whether or not an elephant is TB positive or not. As indicated in the USDA Guidelines for the Control of Tuberculosis in Elephants, "There is little information concerning the reliability of ante-mortem (preceding death) tests for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in elephants."

To begin with, there are many problems with the trunk wash test. An elephant can be fully contagious one day and test negative the next. The results of the tests take six to eight weeks, and so an elephant can be traveling prior to the lab confirming that they are, in fact, contagious. Moreover, circus veterinarians rather than USDA officials conduct the tests, so there is no guarantee that the results are not tampered with, or that the test has been correctly administered. Given that treatment costs about $50 000 per animal and that a TB positive elephant is restricted from performing for at least six months, it is certainly in the financial interests of the Circus owner to have a negative test result.

Aren't the elephants cured of the disease before they are allowed back on the road?

Elephants that test positive for TB are treated with a protocol that was developed by a working group of the USDA. There are several problems with the protocol, including the fact that TB in elephants is quite a new phenomenon, and therefore treatments at this time are still at the experimental stage. One of the greatest difficulties is getting the elephants to accept the treatment (elephants often refuse to ingest the bitter tasting pills).

Full-blown, contagious TB most often flares up when the immune system is depressed. The Hawthorn elephants are kept under highly stressful, unnatural conditions. They are beaten, and often denied food, water, and exercise. Hawthorn's elephants are frequently on the road, traveling in unheated, unventilated trucks. They spend the majority of their lives in chains. It would appear that the stress of their lives would make them prime candidates for lowered immune systems, and thus repeat outbreaks of contagious TB.

The World Health Organization also states that TB treatments that are inadequately followed can create drug resistant strains of the disease. The USDA has tracked several cases of drug resistant TB in elephants. Notably, the Hawthorn Corporation has been cited twice by the USDA, following the initial quarantine, for failing to administer the prescribed treatment protocol.

Aren't the elephants regularly tested to determine if they are contagious?

The United States Department of Agriculture requires that an elephant that has previously been treated for TB be tested annually to show that the animal is not currently contagious. However, even if the tests are conducted accurately, they are no assurance that the animals are not contagious at any given time. Contagious TB can flare up with little warning, with few visible symptoms in elephants. If a test is performed during a given month, there is no guarantee whatsoever that the elephant will not be contagious the next month. Furthermore, the USDA admits that the tests cannot detect early onset of active infection. An annual test in no way provides the public with any kind of real assurance that the elephants in their circus are not contagious.

Wouldn't the Canadian border authorities be able to tell if an elephant that was being imported was TB positive?

In the past few years, the Canadian public is becoming increasingly concerned by the routine import of elephants who have tested positive for or have been exposed to TB. In response to these concerns, Agriculture Canada and Health Canada both cite the onsite veterinary inspections that occur at the border as a safeguard.

But in reality, elephants can have fully contagious TB without showing any symptoms. Even an experienced exotic animal veterinarian would have little means of identifying physical symptoms of TB. The Canadian border veterinarians, employed by Agriculture Canada, have no background with exotic animals such as elephants. They would be even less able to determine if an elephant was TB positive.

When Global Action Network attended a veterinary inspection of Hawthorn elephants at the Lacolle (Quebec) border, we were shocked to see the level of the inspection. The elephants were not unloaded from their trailers, so the vet simply shone a flashlight into the trailer from a small window on the side and conducted a cursory visual examination. The veterinarian had already admitted to us that he would be completely unable to identify TB in an elephant.