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Investigating the zoonotic origin of the West African Ebola epidemic
- Source :
- EMBO Molecular Medicine
- Publication Year :
- 2014
- Publisher :
- EMBO, 2014.
-
Abstract
- The severe Ebola virus disease epidemic occurring in West Africa stems from a single zoonotic transmission event to a 2-year-old boy in Meliandou, Guinea. We investigated the zoonotic origins of the epidemic using wildlife surveys, interviews, and molecular analyses of bat and environmental samples. We found no evidence for a concurrent outbreak in larger wildlife. Exposure to fruit bats is common in the region, but the index case may have been infected by playing in a hollow tree housing a colony of insectivorous free-tailed bats (Mops condylurus). Bats in this family have previously been discussed as potential sources for Ebola virus outbreaks, and experimental data have shown that this species can survive experimental infection. These analyses expand the range of possible Ebola virus sources to include insectivorous bats and reiterate the importance of broader sampling efforts for understanding Ebola virus ecology.
- Subjects :
- Disease reservoir
wildlife
viruses
030231 tropical medicine
Wildlife
Zoology
bat
600 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften::610 Medizin und Gesundheit
medicine.disease_cause
Disease Outbreaks
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Chiroptera
Zoonoses
Report
West Africa
medicine
Animals
Humans
Disease Reservoirs
030304 developmental biology
Ebolavirus
0303 health sciences
Ebola virus
biology
Transmission (medicine)
Mops condylurus
Zoonosis
Outbreak
Hemorrhagic Fever, Ebola
zoonosis
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Virology
Africa, Western
Ebola
Molecular Medicine
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17574684 and 17574676
- Volume :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- EMBO Molecular Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....a095ce0554f1d93abe88ef83aca2ff54