[HLTH] Ebola? crossing over to animals - aersolized?

[Deb Mc]

Something similar to Ebola is killing off the animals too - possibly by aerolization (see the goat paragraph):

(From an e-mail that Pro-Med sends to all registered members.)


EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - GABON: DEAD WILDLIFE

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[see also:
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: dead wildlife (03) 20011220.3079
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: dead wildlife (02) 20011216.3046
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: dead wildlife 20011216.3041
Ebola haemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep 20011220.3075
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon (07) 20011220.3074
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: WHO confirms 20011211.3002
Viral hemorrhagic fever, suspected - Gabon (06) 20011210.2994
Viral hemorrhagic fever, suspected - Gabon 20011205.2950
1996
---
Hemorrhagic fever - Gabon (3) 19960216.0313
Hemorrhagic fever - Gabon (2) 19960216.0312
1995
---
Ebola new case (2) 19950413.0207
Ebola new case 19950413.0206]

Date: Fri 21 Dec 2001
From: William Karesh (edited)


Report from an on-site team in Gabon


------------------------------------


I would agree with submitted comments that say gorillas (western lowland gorillas in this instance) are unlikely to have been infected with Ebola virus by eating duikers or other antelopes.

We are working on-site with personnel from the Centre International de Recherches Medicales de Franceville (CIRMF) and Ecosystemes Forestiers d'Afrique Centrale (ECOFAC) to survey villagers about wildlife mortalities and contacts, and to confirm the reports by locating the carcasses where possible.

Currently, we have verbal reports from local people of 25 gorillas seen dead at various forested sites. Additionally, local hunters and villagers are reporting finding dead chimps, guenons, porcupines, pangolins, black-backed duikers, genets, rodents, a "snake", and tortoises. This in itself is a rare observation. Local villagers and hunters say that finding so many dead animals in a short period is unusual. From our work in Central African forests, we concur. One group of hunters said they watched a duiker eating or licking a dead gorilla (In zoos, duikers are known to eat small amounts of meat if available).

Teams sent in to corroborate stories have found the remains of one gorilla group (2 large males, 2 females, and an infant) together. At another location, a report led us to a carcass of a adult male gorilla and samples were collected for laboratory confirmation. In a village near the border, 4 people came in contact with a dead gorilla and collected body parts for consumption. One of these people has died and the 3 others are ill. I have no information about the laboratory confirmation of [infection in] these people, but 2 are reportedly recovering and the fourth apparently remains unwell. *******A domestic goat living with them died bleeding from the nose. Postmortem samples were collected from this goat. All animal samples collected to date have been submitted to our collaborators at the CIRMF, Gabon.

To the best of our knowledge, the 4 humans mentioned above are not linked to any of the other human cases (which appear to have direct or indirect contact paths leading back to the illness and death of one man in Gabon).

--
William B Karesh, DVM
Department Head
Field Veterinary Program
Wildlife Conservation Society
2300 Southern Blvd.
Bronx, NY 10460 USA


......................cp/pg/sh

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[jmh]

bump

 

[Shock Wave Rider]

New Weapon? Whatever the hell it is, it isn't good. Jumping species is not normal for regular organisms.

 

[ainitfunny]

WOW!!!

BUMP!

LOOKS LIKE SOME GOVERNMENT LEARNED TO MODIFY E-BOLA AND IT TESTING IT OUT ON WHAT THEY CONSIDER DISPOSABLE PEOPLE AND ANIMALS. MAYBE THEY GOT HOLD OF THAT RUSSIAN EBOLA THAT THE RUSSKIES MODIFIED TO SPREAD THRU THE AIR LIKE SMALLPOX. EBOLA IS BAD ENUFF BUT AIRBORNE EBOLA IS A NIGHTMARE SCENARIO.

 

[duchess47]

It sounds more like some kind of chemical attack rather than ebola. Something that is not species specific.

 

[Deb Mc]

Mom and I were discussing it last night a bit more in depth.

I'm not C.S., by any stretch of the imagination, but here's what we were coming up with:

1. Ebola is usually transmitted by direct contact with contaminated blood.

2. The 4 people could have become contaminated if they had cuts and scratches on their bodies, getting it covered in blood while they were butching the dead ape.

3. The wierd issue is the group's goat - how did it get infected? Our speculation is that one of the people didn't wash their hands or clothes after butchering and either touched the goat or it's food. The goat then may have been exposed once it started to clean itself or ate the bloody grain.

Question #1 though: Do goats clean themselves like dogs and cats do?

Question #2: How are all these other species getting infected?


Ape family: Gorillas, chimps, guenons.

Pangolin: "Scaly anteater": http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/walker/pholidota.manidae.manis.html

Genets are members of the mongoose/civit family: http://www.geobop.com/Mammals/Carnivora/Viverridae/

Duikers are part of the antelope family: http://www.antelopetag.org/blue_duiker.htm

Porcupines we know are in a class all by themselves: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/chordata/mammalia/rodentia/hystricidae.html


Similarities: They all eat meat of some sort: carrion, insects, larva.

I'm wondering if the people infected with Ebola have eaten some sort of new insect type that has this as an ingrained defense system.