Syracuse’s baby elephant twins get ground-breaking vaccine to prevent illness that killed their brothers

Syracuse, N.Y. — Syracuse’s elephant twins, Yaad and Tukada, beat tremendous odds by simply surviving their birth two years ago.
They are among the only elephant twins to have survived birth in captivity. But another risk has quietly hung over them, and their keepers at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, daily: EEHV, the elephant herpes virus. The virus is deadly to young elephants once the immunity they have acquired from their mothers wears off.