1. Studies of reservoir hosts for Marburg virus.
- Author
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Swanepoel, Robert, Smit, Sheilagh B., Rollin, Pierre E., Formenty, Pierre, Leman, Patricia A., Kemp, Alan, Burt, Felicity J., Grobbelaar, Antoinette A., Croft, Janice, Bausch, Daniel G., Zeller, Hervé, Leirs, Herwig, Braack, L. E. O., Libande, Modeste L., Zaki, Sherif, Nichol, Stuart T., Ksiazek, Thomas G., Paweska, Janusz T., Zeller, Hervé, and International Scientific and Technical Committee for Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever Control in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Subjects
MARBURG virus ,ANIMALS ,MINES & mineral resources ,HEMORRHAGIC fever ,BATS ,BAT classification ,RESEARCH ,BIOLOGICAL evolution ,ANIMAL experimentation ,RESEARCH methodology ,RNA ,MEDICAL cooperation ,EVALUATION research ,COMPARATIVE studies ,RNA viruses ,VIRAL antibodies ,MINERAL industries - Abstract
To determine reservoir hosts for Marburg virus (MARV), we examined the fauna of a mine in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mine was associated with a protracted outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever during 1998-2000. We found MARV nucleic acid in 12 bats, comprising 3.0%-3.6% of 2 species of insectivorous bat and 1 species of fruit bat. We found antibody to the virus in the serum of 9.7% of 1 of the insectivorous species and in 20.5% of the fruit bat species, but attempts to isolate virus were unsuccessful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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