Ebola virus killing thousands of apes BRAZZAVILLE, Congo, April 17, 2007 (UPI) -- The Ebola virus is killing thousands of Republic of Congo gorillas and chimpanzees in an outbreak possibly caused by transmission between ape social groups.
Direct encounters between gorilla or chimpanzee social groups are rare, therefore large ape die-offs were assumed to be caused by "massive spillover" from some unknown reservoir host.
But a new study by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Cambridge University, and Stony Brook University at three sites in the northern Republic of Congo suggests Ebola transmission between ape groups might occur through routes other than direct social encounter.
For instance, researchers found as many as four different gorilla groups fed in the same fruit tree on a single day. Thus, infective body fluids deposited by one group might easily be encountered by a subsequent group.
The study provides hope newly developed vaccines might control the devastating impact of Ebola on wild apes, as well as providing the first evidence gorillas from one social group closely inspect the carcasses of gorillas from other groups. Contact with corpses at funerals is a major mechanism of Ebola transmission in humans.
The research appears in the May issue of The American Naturalist.