Researchers worry chimpanzee-killing virus could jump to humans next
By Julia Musto
Scientists are concerned that a recently discovered bacterium linked to the deaths
published a study on Wednesday, announcing their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
Fifty-six chimpanzees died from the previously mysterious illness at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary between 2005 and 2018.
The disease causes The chimpanzees would stagger and stumble, vomit, and have diarrhea, he said. Sometimes they’d go to bed healthy and be dead in the morning.
After several years spent screening DNA and samples from the primates, Goldberg s graduate student Leah A. Owens isolated a bacterium that was in 68% of the samples from sick chimpanzees.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what s clicking on Foxnews.com.
Scientists are concerned that a recently discovered bacterium linked to the deaths of chimpanzees in Sierra Leone could spread to humans.
Researchers led by a team at the University of Wisconsin, Madison published a study on Wednesday, announcing their findings in the journal Nature Communications.
Fifty-six chimpanzees died from the previously mysterious illness at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary between 2005 and 2018.
The disease causes both gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms that are not subtle, lead researcher Tony Goldberg told Science. The chimpanzees would stagger and stumble, vomit, and have diarrhea, he said. Sometimes they’d go to bed healthy and be dead in the morning.
A new and always fatal disease that has been killing chimpanzees at a sanctuary in Sierra Leone for years has been reported for the first time by an international team of scientists led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The disease, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, is caused by a newly discovered species of bacterium and comes as the world wrestles with a devastating pandemic caused by another novel foe, the new coronavirus.
Although the chimpanzee illness has yet to be found in a human being, the two species share about 99% of their hereditary material, or DNA.
Researchers worry chimpanzee-killing virus could jump to humans next foxnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from foxnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.