WORLD SCIENCE
WORLD SCIENCE
"Long Before It's In the Papers"
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July
21, 2004
Special to World
Science
As
if
hunting
and
habitat
loss
weren't
enough,
the
remaining
wild
populations
of
apes may be threatened
by
infectious disease, researchers say.
In a new report in the research journal Nature, Heinz Ellerbrok of the Robert Koch-Institut, Berlin, Germany, and colleagues write that have been investigating an unusually high number of sudden deaths among wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast, Africa.
The anthrax bacterium Bacillus anthracis appears to have been the cause of death for at least six of the primates, the researchers said. This has occurred despite the fact that tropical rainforest is not a habitat previously associated with anthrax, they added.
The results suggest that epidemic diseases represent considerable threats to wild ape populations, the researchers say. Moreover, these events could pose a threat to human health, since some local peoples eat chimpanzee meat, the researchers added.
—EJL
Front image courtesy the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services
WORLD SCIENCE
"Long
Before It's In the Papers"
