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

[Mary P. Remington]

How does this address the issue of the infrequency of Ebola outbreaks?  I 
would think if it were that simple outbreaks would be more frequent.  

                 Mary






On 26 May 1995, Doug Yanega 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
> 
>