![]() ![]() We have used these methods to crack other mystery diseases in primates in the past." "It involves massively parallel deep sequencing and metagenomics. "My lab has developed techniques for pathogen-hunting, where we can take any type of biological sample and process it to identify all the microbes in it using a specialized set of lab and bioinformatic methods," he said. He said they were at the end of their rope and they didn't know what to do," said Dr. "Greg knew through connections that I do work on epidemiology and microbiology of primate diseases, and he told me about this terrible problem that they had been having for a decade at Tacugama. In 2016, Tony Goldberg, Ph.D., D.V.M., professor of epidemiology in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, received an email pleading for help from Gregg Tully, CEO of the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, an umbrella organization for primate sanctuaries across Africa. Hirji.Ī social group of chimpanzees at the edge of a forested enclosure at Tacugama Sanctuary. ![]() Those two things made a difference in mortality, but we don't know why," said Dr. We also added additional water stations to make sure they were adequately hydrated. "Because the deaths were happening in the afternoon, the hottest part of the dry season, we kept the chimps indoors for the afternoon. He said the sanctuary instituted several management changes that decreased the prevalence of the disease. Ismail (Izzy) Hirji, D.V.M., was the resident veterinarian at Tacugama Sanctuary from 2016-17 and now serves as a consultant veterinarian for the sanctuary. Years went by, and chimpanzees kept dying. Testing of stomach contents and water quality didn't turn up anything. Researchers couldn't find a parasite, toxic plant or virus that was responsible for the disease. Histopathology investigations were unsuccessful at identifying a culprit. The mystery disease continued to plague chimpanzees year after year, mostly affecting animals during March and April. Even after staff veterinarians aggressively treated the chimps, the fatality rate was 100%. The illness came on quickly, with some chimps being found dead before caretakers even knew they were sick. Characteristic signs were neurologic, such as weakness, ataxia and seizures, and gastrointestinal, such as abdominal distension, anorexia and vomiting. In 2005, chimpanzees at the Tacugama Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Freetown, Sierra Leone, started dying from a mysterious illness. From the Winter 2021 issue of " Microcosm." ![]()
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