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Related Experiment Videos

Ebola outbreak killed 5000 gorillas.

Magdalena Bermejo1, José Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro, Germán Illera

  • 1Ecosystèmes Forestiers d'Afrique Centrale (ECOFAC), Box Postale 15115 Libreville, Gabon. magda_bermejo@yahoo.es

Science (New York, N.Y.)
|December 13, 2006
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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The Zaire Ebola virus (ZEBOV) likely caused the deaths of approximately 5,000 gorillas in Central Africa. Group-to-group transmission amplified these devastating gorilla die-offs during the 2002-2003 epidemic.

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Epidemiology
  • Primate Health

Background:

  • Repeated Zaire strain of Ebola virus (ZEBOV) outbreaks in Gabon and Congo have coincided with ape mortality reports.
  • The extent of ape mortality and ZEBOV's causal role in these events remain debated.
  • Understanding wildlife mortality is crucial for zoonotic disease surveillance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To quantify gorilla mortality during the 2002-2003 ZEBOV epidemic in a specific study area.
  • To investigate the transmission patterns of ZEBOV within gorilla populations.
  • To establish a causal link between ZEBOV and observed ape die-offs.

Main Methods:

  • Field observation and carcass counts to estimate gorilla mortality.
  • Analysis of mortality onset timing between neighboring gorilla groups.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Correlation of mortality patterns with known ZEBOV disease cycle length.

    • Main Results:

    • An estimated 5,000 gorillas died in the study area during 2002-2003.
    • The temporal lag between mortality events in adjacent gorilla groups approximated the ZEBOV disease cycle.
    • This pattern strongly suggests group-to-group transmission amplified mortality.

    Conclusions:

    • ZEBOV was a significant cause of gorilla mortality in the studied region.
    • Intra-specific transmission dynamics played a key role in amplifying the epidemic's impact on gorillas.
    • Findings highlight the vulnerability of great apes to zoonotic diseases and the need for conservation efforts informed by epizootic data.