My Candidate for the Ebola Reservoir Organism (was Re: Chimpanzee Ebola outbreak)

[Shan Putnam]

salamon at notmendel.Berkeley.EDU ( ) wrote:

>Doug Yanega (dyanega at denr1.igis.uiuc.edu) wrote:
>: In article <00990CC9.364DAE7A at vms.csd.mu.edu>, 5lr6schumach at vms.csd.mu.edu
>: wrote:

>: > The newest issue of science (19 May 1995, Vol 268, Pgs974-975) has a
>: short article on an outbreak of ebola in chimpanzees that occurred last
>: November. This is the one on the Ivory Coast's tai Forest. Also, this is
>: the one where the swiss researcher contracted ebola from the chimp while
>: doing the autopsy (she did recover). They say that this strain is
>: different than any other one. The complete article will be in this weeks
>: issue of The Lancet. They make the interesting observation and suggestion
>: that since t
>: > his outbreak occurred after the rainy season that it may be insect born.
>: Also, they have found cases of ebola in poachers and villagers who kill
>: and eat monkeys. the outbreak killed 12 out of 40 chimps. Interesting
>: article in a scientifically sound journal...........

>: I'm staggered to see how, for something so prominent as Ebola, the "left
>: hand doesn't know what the right is doing" - all the evidence suggests
>: that the reservoir of the virus is something the chimpanzees eat,
>: something people who eat monkeys eat, and (logically) is probably a
>: mammal, most likely a primate. There have, however, been several
>: recently-published studies on the diet of wild chimps, and their main prey
>: are *Red Colobus monkeys*. How come with all the high-profile activity, no
>: one has ever bothered to LOOK at the literature on chimp behavior, put two
>: and two together, and suggested that the Red Colobus monkey might be the
>: reservoir species??!! No, instead we get some half-baked suggestion that
>: it "might be insect-borne"...mark my words, it'll take them several years
>: and several million dollars to find the reservoir, and I'll bet my bottom
>: dollar that it will turn out to be the Colobus after all that (and whoever
>: publishes it first will become an instant celebrity). Is this what comes
>: of ultra-specialization in science? I can't imagine how else a major
>: article in a major journal could overlook something so obvious.
>: Sincerely,
>: -- 
>: Doug Yanega
>: Illinois Natural History Survey, Center for Biodiversity
>: 607 E. Peabody Dr. Champaign, IL 61820  USA
>: "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is
>:     the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick


Has anyone considered looking into the possibility that the natural
reservoir is a plant?  Could this be a very, very rare virus that
naturally occurs in plants, but when ingested/inoculated (via a thorn)
into a warm-blood animals it adapts to that host.  I know that the
outer membrane of the virus is acquired via a "budding" process
throught eukaryotic cells.  I have read/heard that there has been a
lot of cash, time and sweat spent looking for it's natural home with
absolutely no luck.  Just a wild thought.