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The deaths of 350 elephants in Botswana's Okavango Delta and 35 at the bordering Hwange National Park and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in 2020 were due to a rare form of bacteria, scientists have finally established.

The findings were published in the peer-reviewed Nature Communications journal.

"Here we show evidence of the mortalities in Zimbabwe as fatal septicaemia associated with Bisgaard taxon 45, an unnamed close relative of Pasteurella multocida," they wrote.