Three tamarin monkeys from the Hutchinson Zoo in Kansas have died from a virus.
The animals died late last month from the highly fatal virus likely contracted by eating an infected mouse or mouse urine.
Two of the cotton-topped tamarins native to Colombia were born at the zoo in 2001. The other was born there in 2008.
Zoo Director John Wright says the zoo prescribed antibiotics and extra fluids for the monkeys when staff noticed they were ill earlier that month.
A Kansas State University veterinary lab later confirmed they died of an untreatable virus prevented only through rodent control.
Wright says mice likely made their way inside to escape the cold despite the zoo’s efforts to control the rodents.
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Associated Press Information from: The Hutchinson News
