Isolates of Zaire ebolavirus from wild apes reveal genetic lineage and recombinants.

ABSTRACT: Over the last 30 years, Zaire ebolavirus (ZEBOV), a virus highly pathogenic for humans and wild apes, has emerged repeatedly in Central Africa. Thus far, only a few virus isolates have been characterized genetically, all belonging to a single genetic lineage and originating exclusively from infected human patients. Here, we describe the first ZEBOV sequences isolated from great ape carcasses in the Gabon/Congo region that belong to a previously unrecognized genetic lineage. According to our estimates, this lineage, which we also encountered in the two most recent human outbreaks in the Republic of the Congo in 2003 and 2005, diverged from the previously known viruses around the time of the first documented human outbreak in 1976. These results suggest that virus spillover from the reservoi

SUBMITTER: Wittmann TJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2040453 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature