🐘Oregon Zoo elephant calf Tula-Tu is holding steady and showing encouraging signs

If you've been rooting for Tula-Tu, here's an update: the Oregon Zoo's elephant calf is "holding steady" after a week and a half of emergency care. She's being treated for EEHV-1B, a strain of elephant herpesvirus, with antiviral medications, fluids and a series of plasma transfusions. "Her white-cell counts are nearly back to normal and her viral load is trending down," said Dr. Carlos Sanchez, the zoo's director of animal health.

Tula-Tu was the 18th elephant to get a vaccine against EEHV-1A, and the first on the West Coast to get the mRNA version. Her infection is the related -1B strain. "We do not know whether the EEHV-1A vaccine is protective for the -1B variant," Sanchez said. The zoo has sent blood samples to Oregon State University, Baylor College of Medicine and the Smithsonian's National Elephant Herpesvirus Laboratory. She also spent time with her dad, Samson, in a behind-the-scenes yard.

• Condition: guarded, with appetite and alertness improving
• Risk window: calves ages 1 to 8, as maternal antibodies decline
• Play: a large blue ball that once belonged to Rose-Tu