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Mystery disease at Sierra Leone chimpanzee sanctuary linked to bacterial infection For news media
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In 2005, chimpanzees at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone, started getting sick. They would stumble, vomit and stop eating.
The illness came on quickly; some chimps were found dead before caretakers even knew they were sick. Searches for parasites, toxic plants or viruses responsible for the disease came up empty. Treatment couldn’t stave off death. Since then, 56 chimpanzees at the sanctuary have died of the mysterious illness, which has been dubbed epizootic neurologic and gastroenteric syndrome, or ENGS.
But a new study published this month in Nature Communications by researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Tacugama and an international team of colleagues reveals that an overlooked bacterial group known as