World-renowned University of Pretoria veterinarians Professor Gerhard Steenkamp and Dr Adrian Tordiffe on 31 October performed intricate dental surgery on an elephant  to remove its infected tusk at the Tbilisi Zoo in Georgia, the university reported.

Steenkamp, who teaches courses in animal dentistry and maxillofacial surgery at UP’s Faculty of Veterinary Science said that three years ago the zoo was devastated by the loss of 300 animals in a flood.

"They currently have a pair of Asian elephants and a 23 year-old bull, Grand, was a gift from the Yerevan Zoo in Armenia four years ago,” he said.

When Grand was transported to the Yerevan Zoo from Russia he fractured both his tusks and in 2014 a British team removed the left tusk. 

Due to complications, the right tusk could not be removed but over time became chronically infected. If bacteria entered the bloodstream, it could have been life threatening, Steenkamp said.

“Grand’s previous surgery had many complications. One of them was a protracted recovery time and the zoo was reluctant to operate on him soon after that procedure,” he said.

However, Tordiffe, who has gained experienced in elephant immobilisations and anaesthesia at the Pretoria Zoo, and has vast knowledge of anaesthetising elephants in small spaces, was the perfect choice for the surgery on Grand.

Steenkamp developed techniques to treat elephant tusks since 1998. Since then he has refined his methods and instruments, which are based on work he completed for his MSc on the morphometrics of African elephant tusks. 

The entire procedure from dart in to standing took four hours and 15 minutes, of which, just over three hours was surgery time. A crane was parked in the vicinity to move the 3.5 t elephant, in the event of it being in an inconvenient position for surgery, Steenkamp said.

The anaesthesia and surgery went according to plan, and everyone was relieved when Grand stood on his legs four hours and 15 minutes later. His previous recovery from anaesthesia was very stormy - and it was about six hours - and he took about 12 hours to stand.

Grand has become a celebrity in Georgia and on the day of the operation a crowd of international news crews descended on the zoo. The surgery was filmed by the BBC as part of its new series Big Animal Surgery.