A new disease affecting monkeys in Africa could endanger humans • Researchers worry: "We do not know enough about it" • Try to reassure: "This is not an emerging epidemic"
The chimpanzee monkey shelter in Sierra Leone, experienced from 2005 to 2018 a series of mysterious deaths among the monkeys there, which aroused the doctors' fear of a new and unfamiliar disease that struck them.
The symptoms in all the monkeys were similar: neurological problems that caused the monkeys to have difficulty walking and seizures.
The monkeys also suffered from vomiting and other damage to their digestive system.
In fact, a post-mortem performed on 56 monkeys revealed that they all had similar characteristics of similar injuries.
The ongoing death of the sexes, specifically at the Takogama shelter in the country, has caused concern among researchers and since 2016 an intensive study has been done to find out what kills the monkeys.
Another cause for concern was the fact that a disease that affects chimpanzees in this way can easily kill humans as well as chimpanzees and the human race share 99 percent of their DNA and to this day any disease that affects chimpanzees has also affected humans.
This year investigators have come to the conclusion about the cause of the mysterious death and it is very disturbing.
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have found a known bacterium of the Sarcina type, but the version found in the laboratory is different from the two versions known to science and is probably 100 percent toxic among the monkeys of the shelter.
The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications, and they show how much care must also be taken in relation to bacteria known to science.
Chimpanzee Monkey / AFP
The person who discovered the new bacterium was student Leah A.
Evans, who worked under the guidance of researcher Tony Goldberg.
The student was isolated in 68 percent of the specimens of the dead monkeys, a new type of bacterium named Sarcina troglodytae, named after the species of chimpanzees in which it is found.
"It was really a detective operation to find the bacterium, it took us five years of searching and a lot of effort," says Dr. Goldberg after the findings were published.
In fact, until now only two types of bacteria from this family were known to science, with the Sarricina ventriculi discovered in 1844 being known to cause a fatal syndrome in animals and humans of the kind that caused chimpanzees to die.
The difference between the species known to science and the present species is that the present is also present in the monkeys' brains and has produced a more extensive harm.
Laboratory worker / IPI
"We do not know enough about the bacterium and why the disease appears during the dry season in the country, in March. We also do not know if the bacterium is deadly alone or if other processes are involved here and we do not know how this bacterium gets to monkeys," the researchers write in their article.
Either way despite giving antibiotics and anticonvulsants the researchers were unable to cure the monkeys infected with the bacterium.
However, they emphasize that "this is not an emerging epidemic and it is not a contagious bacterium."
However, Dr. Goldberg adds that "this bacterial strain has not been studied enough to date and we may find that it does harm humans and some of the deaths in the world are related to it.
It's another one of those things that is out there that falls into the category of things that need to be researched and followed up. "
