Photo ibtimes.com
An unprecedented wave of death that has
swept through Brazil since late 2016 is killing thousands of monkeys. A recent
and unprecedented outbreak of the mosquito-borne virus, yellow fever, has
killed thousands of monkeys in the region, including nearly all of the brown
howler monkeys.
Yellow fever has killed thousands of the
rare monkeys and there is no vaccine for the monkeys who are dying en masse in
Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, the two states so far worst hit.
“Some 80 to 90 per cent of the brown howler
monkeys are infected or have already died,” says Sergio Mendes at the Federal
University of Espírito Santo in Vitoria, Brazil.
“This is a true catastrophe.
These outbreaks happen periodically, but
this is the worst I’ve ever seen.”
Scientists say they have never seen monkeys
perish in such numbers, so quickly, from disease.
The way yellow fever has spread also
concerns Brazilian health officials. As
of mid-March 2017, they have confirmed more than 400 human cases of the
disease, mostly in Minas Gerais, causing nearly 150 human deaths. The Brazilian
Ministry of Health is investigating another 900 possible cases and concern is
mounting that it will spread to cities, threatening many more people.
Brazilian authorities also want to protect
the monkeys from people who fear the animals may be spreading the disease.
"We need to show that they help inform when the virus arrives in a region,
because being more sensitive than humans, they die first," Mendes
explains.
A dead monkey is like a canary in a coal
mine, alerting public health officials that a pathogen may be present,
mobilizing preventative and precautionary efforts. So, what does it mean when
so many have perished?
"No one really knows the consequences
for the other primates or the forest when nearly the entire population of an
abundant species dies from disease in just a few months," says Strier.
"We are in a position to learn things we never knew before, with all the
background information that we have collected."
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. Original written by Kelly April Tyrrell.
