By Susan Milius
Getting used to people hanging around has been a mixed blessing for chimps in Africa’s Côte d’Ivoire.
Groups of chimpanzees in the Tai National Park have become habituated to people, allowing both researchers and ecotourists close access for decades. Respiratory diseases broke out among these chimps five times between 1999 and 2004, killing at least 15 animals. An international team now confirms the researchers’ fears: The pathogens probably came from people.
The samples available from seven chimps that died revealed either human respiratory syncytial virus or human metapneumovirus, says Fabian Leendertz, a wildlife epidemiologist at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. The viruses, common among people, infect the upper-respiratory tract and can open the way for fatal pneumonia. Adults typically suffer mild bouts, but in parts of the world with strained medical systems, the viruses account for considerable infant mortality.