Gorilla Susceptibility To Ebola Virus: The Cost Of Sociality

ScienceDaily (Jul. 10, 2006) — By monitoring a large population
of gorillas during an Ebola outbreak in the rain forest of the
Republic of the Congo, researchers have found that in a few
months the virus exhibited dramatic--but disproportionate--impacts
on group-dwelling and solitary gorillas.
The findings offer a unique glimpse into the factors affecting
the threat the deadly virus poses to great apes


The work is reported in the journal Current Biology by a
team of researchers including Damien Caillaud and
colleagues from the University of Montpellier and
the University of Rennes, France.

France and UMR 5554
Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution
CNRS/Université de Montpellier 2 in Montpellier,
France;
Maeva Dewas
Florence Levréro,
Sylvain Gatti,
Mélanie Douadi