TY - GEN T1 - Anthrax in Western and Central African Great Apes AU - Leendertz, Fabian AU - Lankester, Felix AU - Guislain, Patrick AU - Néel, Cécile AU - Drori, Ofir AU - Dupain, Jef AU - Speede, Sheri AU - Reed, Patricia AU - Wolfe, Nathan D. AU - Loul, Severin AU - Mpoudi-Ngole, E. AU - Peeters, Martine AU - Boesch, Christophe AU - Pauli, Georg AU - Ellerbrok, Heinz AU - Leroy, Eric M. AB - During the period of December 2004 to January 2005, Bacillus anthracis killed three wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) and one gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in a tropical forest in Cameroon. While this is the second anthrax outbreak in wild chimpanzees, this is the first case of anthrax in gorillas ever reported. The number of great apes in Central Africa is dramatically declining and the populations are seriously threatened by diseases, mainly Ebola. Nevertheless, a considerable number of deaths cannot be attributed to Ebola virus and remained unexplained. Our results show that diseases other than Ebola may also threaten wild great apes, and indicate that the role of anthrax in great ape mortality may have been underestimated. These results suggest that risk identification, assessment, and management for the survival of the last great apes should be performed with an open mind, since various pathogens with distinct characteristics in epidemiology and pathogenicity may impact the populations. An animal mortality monitoring network covering the entire African tropical forest, with the dual aims of preventing both great ape extinction and human disease outbreaks, will create necessary baseline data for such risk assessments and management plans. KW - Animals KW - Bacterial/genetics KW - Bacterial/chemistry KW - DNA KW - Antigens KW - Anthrax/microbiology KW - Bacillus anthracis/genetics KW - Bacillus anthracis/isolation & purification KW - Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary KW - Bacterial Toxins/genetics KW - Pan troglodytes KW - Ape Diseases/epidemiology KW - Anthrax/epidemiology KW - Anthrax/veterinary KW - Ape Diseases/microbiology KW - Bacterial Toxins/chemistry KW - Cameroon/epidemiology KW - Gorilla gorilla KW - 610 Medizin PY - 2006 LA - eng PB - Robert Koch-Institut, Infektionskrankheiten / Erreger; Robert Koch-Institut, Biologische Sicherheit VL - 68 IS - 9 DO - 10.1002/ajp.20298 ER -