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As world reels from coronavirus, UW researchers report on chimpanzee-killing disease, raising concerns about jump to humans
Mark Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
"There are very few pathogens that infect chimpanzees without infecting humans and very few pathogens that infect humans without infecting chimpanzees," said Tony Goldberg, one of the authors of the paper and a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of epidemiology.
Lethal diseases, including Ebola and HIV, have jumped from great apes to humans. Other diseases, such as influenza and polio, have gone the opposite route, passing from humans to apes.
Diseases with 100% fatality rates are very rare. Ebola, one of the most-feared illnesses in humans, kills about 50% of those infected.
"The staff at Tacugama (Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone) are super worried. It looks like something we need to be concerned about," Goldberg said.
The new bacterium is called Sarcina troglodytae; the newly described disease it causes has been named Epizootic Neurologic and Gastroenteric Syndrome, or ENGS.
ENGS first appeared around 2005 and strikes its victims suddenly. A chimpanzee that had looked healthy just a day earlier contracts the disease and stumbles around almost drunkenly with a nervous system disorder known as ataxia. The chimpanzees also suffer bloating of the stomach and the intestines. They appear to die from gas that gets into the tissue of the intestines...
As world reels from coronavirus, UW researchers report on chimpanzee-killing disease, raising concerns about jump to humans
Mark Johnson
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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.
"There are very few pathogens that infect chimpanzees without infecting humans and very few pathogens that infect humans without infecting chimpanzees," said Tony Goldberg, one of the authors of the paper and a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of epidemiology.
Lethal diseases, including Ebola and HIV, have jumped from great apes to humans. Other diseases, such as influenza and polio, have gone the opposite route, passing from humans to apes.
Diseases with 100% fatality rates are very rare. Ebola, one of the most-feared illnesses in humans, kills about 50% of those infected.
"The staff at Tacugama (Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone) are super worried. It looks like something we need to be concerned about," Goldberg said.
The new bacterium is called Sarcina troglodytae; the newly described disease it causes has been named Epizootic Neurologic and Gastroenteric Syndrome, or ENGS.
ENGS first appeared around 2005 and strikes its victims suddenly. A chimpanzee that had looked healthy just a day earlier contracts the disease and stumbles around almost drunkenly with a nervous system disorder known as ataxia. The chimpanzees also suffer bloating of the stomach and the intestines. They appear to die from gas that gets into the tissue of the intestines...
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