Poachers no match for dog TB-related treatment advance
EWT salutes team on arrest of three suspects through dark terrain
lisa.isaacs@inl.co.za CONSERVATION canine Annie and her handler Colin have struck again, and ensured the arrest of three suspected rhino poachers at Balule Private Nature Reserve in Limpopo.
In what may be one of the most exciting anti-poaching follow-ups of the year, the Endangered Wildlife Trust’s (EWT) Annie and Colin tracked through the night to secure this victory for wildlife.
Suspected poacher tracks were found during a late afternoon anti-poaching patrol, and Annie and Colin, with assistant Mervyn and the EWT’s canine-candler trainee Shay, were soon deployed.
They followed the tracks through the night and completed a marathon in pursuit of the suspects in the dark.
This was not a solo mission, as the community assisted with the chase, among them the Balule regional anti-poaching units, the South African Police Service and many Hoedspruit Farm Watch members, who closed potential exit routes.
The operation was co-ordinated by the Balule operations room, and by daybreak, the suspects had been successfully contained within the reserve.
With sunrise, air support could be brought in, and two fixed-wing aircraft (Flying for Rhinos and Game Reserves United), the Wild Skies Aviation chopper, a gyrocopter and the Hoedspruit Air Force Base’s Oryx helicopter joined the mission.
The ground tracking team was joined by the Southern African Wildlife College Dog Unit’s pack hounds. Three suspects were arrested, with the seizure of weapons, including a rifle with a silencer, and other poaching equipment.
The poachers had done everything to try to deter Annie, including covering their shoes in sponge and continually backtracking and circling to try to confuse her, but to no avail.
The EWT conservation canine Fury, which is trained to detect rhino horn, ivory and ammunition, along with Shay, searched for evidence at several key sites.
Annie and her team have been responsible for the arrest of 12 suspected poachers this year, and her ability to operate at night with her handler is seen as a major step in the fight against rhino poaching.
Annie is a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois dog that is trained to track humans.
She has been working with Colin since June and was trained at the Southern African Wildlife College with the financial support of the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust.
EWT, as champions of conservation, saluted everyone involved in this effort in the dark, in Big Five country.
Annie’s hander Colin is urgently looking for a chest-mounted GoPro camera to record this kind of operation for training and law enforcement purposes.
Anyone wishing to donate can contact Ashleigh Dore on AshleighD@ewt.org.za. athina.may@inl.co.za A POSSIBLE breakthrough in the treatment of tuberculosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS), common among HIV-positive patients, has been made by University of Cape Town scientists.
To date there has been no management strategy for preventing TB-IRIS, which causes enlarged lymph nodes, from developing in HIV-positive patients.
The study by UCT Professor Graeme Meintjes, done in collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, showed that a moderate dose of the immune-suppressant corticosteroid prednisone reduces the risk of TB-IRIS in HIV-positive patients taking anti-TB medication by 30%.
The trial for the study, which was conducted by the UCT Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research at Khayelitsha’s Site B HIV-TB clinic, involved 240 HIV-positive patients with very low CD4 counts, who started TB treatment within 30 days prior to enrolment.
Meintjes said it was critical to start patients with HIV, TB and very low CD4 counts on antiretrovirals within the first two weeks of treatment for TB, which consequently created a high risk of their developing TB-IRIS.
He said TB-IRIS was characterised by severe inflammation, which occurred shortly after patients on TB treatment started taking antiretroviral therapy.
He said it was a serious risk that resulted in a quarter of affected patients being hospitalised.
“This is the first trial to show that TB-IRIS can be prevented, and represents an important contribution to the body of knowledge on management of HIV-TB co-infection,” said Meintjes.