A new approach for monitoring ebolavirus in wild great apes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Central Africa is a "hotspot" for emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) of global and local importance, and a current outbreak of ebolavirus is affecting multiple countries simultaneously. Ebolavirus is suspected to have caused recent declines in resident great apes. While ebolavirus vaccines have been proposed as an intervention to protect apes, their effectiveness would be improved if we could diagnostically confirm Ebola virus disease (EVD) as the cause of die-offs, establish ebolavirus geographical distribution, identify immunologically naïve populations, and determine whether apes survive virus exposure.

Methodology/principal findings

Here we report the first successful noninvasive detection of antibodies against Ebola virus (EBOV) from wild ape feces. Using th

SUBMITTER: Reed PE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4169258 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature