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

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

Well Doug, write a letter to the editor of an appropriate Journal.
It is worth a shot, is it not?

- Hugh
(lowly graduate student)

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 ( (                   Hugh Salamon
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   X                   salamon at allele5.berkeley.edu
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