 The affected animals are mostly young Asian elephants that had been born in captivity , with half the cases in North America being between the ages of one and four years ( and three @-@ quarters between one and eight years old ) . Some cases have affected newborns or adult elephants born in the wild ( oldest aged 40 years ) , and three recorded cases have affected African elephants . The first documented fatal case for African elephants was Kijana , an eleven @-@ month @-@ old male in 1996 . Since 2008 , a number of cases have been attributed to EEHV1 among wild Asian elephants . 
