BLACKSBURG, Va., June 5 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they have found evidence chimpanzees are becoming sick from viral infections they likely contract from humans.
Virginia Tech researcher Dr. Taranjit Kaur, an assistant professor, and her colleagues spent the past year in the wilds of Tanzania's Mahale Mountains National Park studying chimps as part of a National Science Foundation grant. They said they gathered molecular, microscopic and epidemiological data that demonstrate how the chimpanzees have been suffering from a respiratory disease that is likely caused by a variant of a human paramyxovirus.
The work, the scientists said, complements and validates a study by European researchers who found evidence of human viruses in deceased chimpanzees in West Africa's Tai Forest.
"Although evidence increasingly suggests infectious diseases may be transmitted from research teams and eco-tourists to endangered great apes, we believe … more research must be conducted in order to establish a comfortable level of proof," said Kaur.
The study's findings are to be detailed in the August issue of the American Journal of Primatology.
