黑猩猩和大猩猩剩余的野生種群列在瀕危物種名單上,。因森林砍伐和狩獵所造成的棲息地的喪失以及“埃博拉”病毒感染，使得整個(gè)中部非洲黑猩猩和大猩猩種群數(shù)量急劇下降?，F(xiàn)在，研究人員又發(fā)現(xiàn)了另一個(gè)以前未曾發(fā)現(xiàn)的威脅---炭疽熱,。他們發(fā)現(xiàn),，象牙海岸的"泰國(guó)家公園”中黑猩猩突然死亡率異乎尋常地高是由炭疽熱引起的。炭疽熱病毒（Bacillus anthracis）被發(fā)現(xiàn)至少是6只黑猩猩的死因,。人們以前不知道熱帶雨林會(huì)窩藏炭疽熱病毒,。除了威脅黑猩猩和大猩猩外，炭疽熱病毒也可能會(huì)威脅當(dāng)?shù)厝说?a href="http://hnhlg.com/news/list-54.html" target="_blank">健康,，因?yàn)檫@里的人們將靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物作為“野味”進(jìn)行非法捕殺和食用,。
Nature 430, 451 - 452 (22 July 2004); doi:10.1038/nature02722
Anthrax kills wild chimpanzees in a tropical rainforest
Infectious disease has joined habitat loss and hunting as threats to the survival of the remaining wild populations of great apes. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the causative agents. We investigated an unusually high number of sudden deaths observed over nine months in three communities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. Here we report combined pathological, cytological and molecular investigations that identified Bacillus anthracis as the cause of death for at least six individuals. We show that anthrax can be found in wild non-human primates living in a tropical rainforest, a habitat not previously known to harbour B. anthracis. Anthrax is an acute disease that infects ruminants, but other mammals, including humans, can be infected through contacting or inhaling high doses of spores or by consuming meat from infected animals. Respiratory and gastrointestinal anthrax are characterized by rapid onset, fever, septicaemia and a high fatality rate without early antibiotic treatment. Our results suggest that epidemic diseases represent substantial threats to wild ape populations, and through bushmeat consumption also pose a hazard to human health.
Figure 1 Histological section of lung tissues of the chimpanzee Léo. Thin sections of altered tissues were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Under a light microscope, long rod-shaped bacteria (arrows) were visible. Left panel, section of the lung parenchyma with oedema and emphysema. Right panel, intravascular bacteria. Scale bars, 20 µm.
