- ABIDJAN -- A report in the
scientific journal, Nature, says at least six wild chimpanzees in Ivory
Coast have died from anthrax. The findings of the study mean that infectious
disease has now been added to the problems of poaching and habitat loss
as the main threats to great apes in Africa.
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- The study shows an unusually high number of sudden deaths
within three communities of chimpanzees was caused by anthrax. The chimpanzees
and great apes are in Ivory Coast's Tai National Park, along the border
with Liberia.
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- Anthrax has never been recorded before in a tropical
rain forest environment. One of the scientists working on the study, Fabian
Leendertz, says there are two theories on how the bacteria arrived.
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- "They are speculating in a very old French newspaper
that it may have come from the north, with cattle transport and so on,"
he said. "Second possibility is that it has always been there, but
nobody has seen it, because, in the forest, you don't see when there are
dead animals."
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- Mr. Leendertz says the infected chimpanzees left their
communities, and their bodies were later discovered.
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- "The thing is, wild animals, they hide their weakness,
until it's too late, because they can't show weakness, because the others
will take their position, or a predator will take them," said Fabian
Leendertz.
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- The chimpanzee deaths occurred more than two years ago,
but since anthrax poisoning among chimpanzees had never been recorded,
it was not until recently that the toxin was identified.
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- Another member of the study team, Heinz Ellerbrok, says
there is great concern that infectious disease could be passed between
the chimpanzees and humans.
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- "These animals are already highly endangered,"
said Heinz Ellerbrok. "There is much more contact between ecological
niches that have been well separated over ages. And now, people are going
into the forest, and there is an exchange, or there might be an exchange
of pathogens between chimpanzees, or in general, great apes and humans,
and this can go both ways."
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- Observation groups have monitored the chimpanzee and
great ape populations in Tai National Park since 1984.
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- http://www.voanews.com/article.cfm?objectID=D22
E0AEC-74AF-4A4A-B51C82E4B38CDF44
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