Contact lenses considered for elephant
A bull elephant at North Carolina zoo may end up being the first elephant to have his own contact lenses, as vets try to stop his deteriorating sight affecting his quality of life.
C'sar is a 38 year old African Bull elephant and has been resident at the zoo since 1978. Zookeepers first noticed his eyes becoming cloudy in 2010, and as his sight worsened, so did his health. He lost 1000 pounds and became lethargic and depressed.
Cataract surgeries in October and May perked him up and he began regaining weight. However, he was also left long-sighted, which has led his vets to consider creating contact lenses to help him further.
Richard McCullen, assistant professor of veterinary ophthalmology at NC State, said: "He might not see perfectly, but he thinks he sees well enough to be moving around. They said he's been running around, and they haven't seen him do that in quite some time."
If contact lenses are decided upon, they would need to be almost three times larger than contacts fitted for humans - 38mm in diameter and about half a millimetre thick.
Defra has published guidance for the vet sector ahead of a proposed UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary agreement.
