50 hippos die from anthrax poisoning at premier African national park: report

Roughly 50 hippopotamuses at Africa’s premier nature reserve died from anthrax poisoning, according to park officials.The naturally occurring form of anthrax took down the behemoths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Virunga National Park — with officials warning that the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis could pose a threat to humans, the AFP reported. “Although this disease mainly affects wildlife, it poses a potential risk of transmission to humans as well as domestic animals,” the Congolese Institute for Nature Conservations, which manages the Virunga Park, said Tuesday to the outlet.Dozens of river horses were found floating belly-up in a river south of Lake Edward within the 3,120-square-mile UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was established in 1925.Officials believe the anthrax was present in the soil due to other anthrax-carrying animals who died and were buried near the scene of the mass grave, according to the report.Similar mass deaths of hippopotamuses and other animals due to anthrax poisoning have occurred in the Virunga and other nature reserves in Africa, where anthrax develops naturally in the soil.This beastly tragedy comes as strife is felt across the Democratic Republic of the Congo — with rebels launching a new offensive in the east and floods killing dozens in the capital city Kinshasa, according to reports....