In view of these conflicting conclusions, in the current study we measured mRNA levels of eight different cytokines (IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, IFN-γ, transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), and TNF-α) in blood and tissue samples of 23 elephants and compared these between EEHV-HD cases (n=11) and controls (n=12), aiming to elucidate whether an excessive cytokine response may indeed be correlated with and hence contributes to EEHV-HD pathogenesis. The gene discussed is IL4; the disease is Huntington disease.