New Method Developed to Detect Ebola Virus | WCS

A group of international scientists led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have developed a new method to study Ebola virus in wildlife.
The research, published today in the journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, describes the use of fecal samples from wild great apes to identify populations likely to have been exposed to the virus.
With this method, ape feces can be collected over large areas of forest habitat where Ebola is a threat, and levels of antibodies in the sampled animals can be compared over time and between seasons and regions – all without the expense and risks of animal capture and handling.
This new tool allows scientists to perform large, population-scale field assessments that can potentially change the way Ebola virus is studied and help identify wildlife outbreaks that precede human cases. If scientists can better understand patterns of Ebola virus infection in wildlife, the public health sector can be more prepared to prevent human outbreaks.
The co-authors of the study, “A New Approach for Monitoring Ebolavirus in Wild Great Apes to Advance Conservation and Define Exposure Prevalence,” are:
Patricia E. Reed of WCS (formerly); Sabue Mulangu of National Institutes of Health (NIH); Kenneth N. Cameron of WCS; Alain U. Ondzie of WCS; Damien Joly of WCS (formerly) and Metabiotia, Inc. (Canada); Magdalena Bermejo of the University of Barcelona (Spain); Pierre Rouquet of ECOFAX (Gabon); Giulia Fabozzi of NIH; Michael Bailey of NIH; Zhimin Shen of NIH; Brandon F. Keele of Frederick National Laboratory in Maryland; Beatrice Hahn of the University of Alabama, Birmingham and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; William B. Karesh of WCS (formerly) and Ecohealth Alliance; and Nancy J. Sullivan of NIH.
This study was supported by: the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; the Arcus Foundation (www.arcusfoundation.org); the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation; the United States Agency for International Development’s Emerging Pandemic Threats PREDICT program; CSR Tullow Oil Society; the Réseau des Aires Protégées d’Afrique Centrale (RAPAC), the extramural grants (R01 AI50529 and R01 AI58715) and the Intramural Research Program of the U.S. National Institutes of Health; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Vaccine Research Center; Freed Foundation, Bradley L. Goldberg Family Foundation; and Frances V. R. Seebe Charitable Trust; among others. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and the findings do not represent the opinions of the US government.