Animal rights activists say the Calgary Zoo should immediately halt its breeding program after the death of a baby elephant last weekend.
Malti the elephant died last weekend, less than a week after being diagnosed with elephant endotheliotropic herpes virus (EEHV).
The disease kills by attacking the cells that line an elephant's blood vessels in the heart, liver and other organs.
Julie Woodyer, a spokeswoman for national animal protection charity Zoocheck, is calling on the Calgary Zoo to stop breeding more elephants.
"Now that there is herpes within this herd and each one of these elephants has had access to each other and the new baby... the breeding program must be stopped immediately," Woodyer told CTV.ca on Tuesday.
She said the disease issues could affect any future calves that are born and may impact adult elephants as they become older.
"It's irresponsible, it's too risky," Woodyer said of any future breeding programs.
"If the zoo continues the breeding program it's just completely irresponsible and it's pretty obvious that they don't care about the animals."
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums will make the decision whether the breeding program will continue, said the Calgary Zoo's communications manager Laurie Herron.
The association runs the Species Survival Plan, which helps to ensure the survival of selected wildlife species held in North American zoos and aquariums.
"It's only been confirmed within the last few days that this virus is within our herd so there hasn't been time to make those kind of sought out decisions," she told CTV.ca in an interview Tuesday.
However, Herron did say she thought it was likely that more breeding would be approved.
"There are other facilities where they have lost a calf to this virus and they've had other successful calves afterwards," she said.
She said the virus is also killing elephants in the wild so "if we don't... keep trying to learn about this virus in another couple of generations there won't be any (elephants)."
If a newborn calf at the zoo did contract the virus, the research could help find a vaccine for wild elephants and those in captivity.
"Most of the facilities that have elephants also support the International Elephant Foundation which supports the wild populations as well, so there's a real link between what we do," she said.
Sandie Black, a veterinarian at the zoo, said it's not clear where Malti first contracted the virus.
"Clearly the virus exists in our herd, it's not something we've been able to identify before," she told CTV's Canada AM on Tuesday.
"Which animal it came from? How long Malti has carried it? At this point, we don't know."
Black said that herpes viruses in general will live in the body of an animal in a latent state, making it very difficult to identify.
Malti is the second baby elephant to die at the Calgary Zoo. A calf who was born to Maharani, Malti's mother, died when it was just weeks old in 2004.
With files from The Canadian Press
