Wild Animal Mortality Monitoring and Human Ebola Outbreaks, Gabon and Republic of Congo, 2001–2003

摘要

All human Ebola virus outbreaks during 2001–2003 inthe forest zone between Gabon and Republic of Congoresulted from handling infected wild animal carcasses. Afterthe first outbreak, we created an Animal MortalityMonitoring Network in collaboration with the Gabonese andCongolese Ministries of Forestry and Environment andwildlife organizations (Wildlife Conservation Society andProgramme de Conservation et Utilisation Rationnelle desEcosystèmes Forestiers en Afrique Centrale) to predict andpossibly prevent human Ebola outbreaks. Since August2001, 98 wild animal carcasses have been recovered bythe network, including 65 great apes. Analysis of 21 car-casses found that 10 gorillas, 3 chimpanzees, and 1 duikertested positive for Ebola virus. Wild animal outbreaksbegan before each of the 5 human Ebola outbreaks. Twicewe alerted the health authorities to an imminent risk forhuman outbreaks, weeks before they occurred