DANGER: Wild animals can carry pathogens capable of jumping into humans—the first step toward becoming a major infectious killer—so a new plan for avoiding pandemics begins with them.
Image: Oxford Scientific Getty Images; JEN CHRISTIANSEN (photoillustration)
In Brief
- Most human infectious diseases originated in animals.
- Historically, epidemiologists have focused on domestic animals as the source of these scourges. But wild animals, too, have transmitted many diseases to us, including HIV.
- To address the threat posed by wild animals, researchers are studying the microbes of these creatures and the people who come into frequent contact with them.
- Such monitoring may enable scientists to spot emerging infectious diseases early enough to prevent them from becoming pandemics.
Sweat streamed down my back, thorny shrubs cut my arms, and we were losing them again. The wild chimpanzees my colleagues and I had been following for nearly five hours had stopped their grunting, hooting and screeching. Usually these calls helped us follow the animals through Uganda's Kibale Forest. For three large males to quiet abruptly surely meant trouble. Suddenly, as we approached a small clearing, we spotted them standing below a massive fig tree and looking up at a troop of red colobus monkeys eating and playing in the treetop.
The monkeys carried on with their morning meal, oblivious to the three apes below. After appearing for a moment to confer with one another, the chimps split up. While the leader crept toward the fig tree, his compatriots made their way up two neighboring trees in silence. Then, in an instant, the leader rushed up his tree screaming. Leaves showered down as the monkeys frantically tried to evade their attacker. But the chimp had calculated his bluster well: although he failed to capture a monkey himself, one of his partners grabbed a juvenile and made his way down to the forest floor with the young monkey in tow, ready to share his catch.
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5 Comments
Add CommentThe best way would be if we would all pray to GOD.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBut Some people will wait til the destruction starts then curse God.
I do not recomend that.
Evolution is at work all around us. As we reduce bio-diversity through our increased numbers, we offer ourselves as an abundant environment to our microscopic fellow inhabitants on this planet. Just as we migrate so too will the micro-organisms, and for similar reasons.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe initial stages of a micro-organism changing hosts is traumatic for both. The micro-organism will evolve to eventually become less pathogenic and eventually benign. All it takes is time. In the short term there will be trauma.
Evolution is flawed in that it gives intelligent life forms an advantage, which results in the extinction of life from the excesses of the intelligent life form. We should give up looking for intelligent extra terrestrial life.
My first question is why viruses arise in wild or domestic animal,what is wrong with these animal?If we believe that every creature have his own cure system,why not wild or domestic animal cure themselves?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy second question man is also creature he have also same gene pool, is it not possible viruses can arise in man`s immune system also?
Ramesh1:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisViruses exist everywhere on our planet. They find the bodies of larger species a very comfortable living space providing them the amino acids they need to procreate. New research indicates they even insert their amino acid chains into our DNA which then duplicates. Man is just another animal and viruses can use our bodies as their homes too.
In the early stages of a virus changing its host species there is a period of adjustment, the virus does most of the adjusting since its lifespan is minuscule compared to its hosts. In the longer term hosts that can not cope with the virus will die, eliminating the genetic characteristics that cause the inability to cope. All micro-organisms that cause disease are termed pathogens.
this guy is so pretentious...predicting a pandemic? GTFOH!
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