Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Hectorspruit, maybe as a result of lion as the vectors from attacking the local cattle. They then
brought TB back to the buffalo in Kruger and it spread rapidly northwards through the buffalo
population. Another theory is that it spread due to fence breakages, although fences were only
constructed in 1961. Other populations affected by bovine TB apart from lion are warthog,
kudu, baboon, hyena, cheetah, leopard, bushbuck, honey badger, and genet. It remains to be
seen if it jumps across the Limpopo to Zimbabwe.
Lions appear to die off earlier from TB than buffalo who appear to be largely disease free
till the age of 3 years.
Fine Kruger Kudu Bull with Ivory Tipped Horns
Hence the population of buffalo has doubled, apart from the issue that culling of buffalo to
control the population has been stopped. As in Stevenson-Hamilton's time, a reduced
population of lions allows the herbivores to grow in population, and the lion population has
shrunk from 2,500 in the Kruger Park to 1,500 because of TB. In order to breed TB and
disease free buffalo, buffalo calves were taken and fed by cattle. The challenge however is
that while cattle calves feed from alongside a cow, buffalo calves instinctively suckle from
behind its mother by sucking on the teats between the buffalo cows legs. This is probably an
adaptation to both predator attacks and also following in dense tall grass.
Other rare sexually transmitted diseases occurred including one called granuloma inguinale
that caused groin abscesses. Acute illnesses that were common were malaria, salmonella
infections (typhoid fever), tick-bite fever, pneumonia, meningococcal meningitis, and
bilharzias/Schistosomiasis. I had been hospitalized at McCord hospital in Durban during one
vacation over Christmas for bilharzias in 1965, but in 1989 while in Denver doing pediatric
heart surgery I developed black hematuria again. I realized what it was and asked on the off
chance if our pharmacy had Ambilhar, which they surprisingly had, and which cured me.
Untreated it can cause liver cirrhosis, portal hypertension, paralysis, liver cancer or bladder
cancer, the commonest cause of cancer in Egypt. Every now and again somebody with sleeping
sickness or other rarer infectious diseases would show up like leprosy. One of my “House”
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