Saturday, December 13, 2008

Hog Ebola

Via ProMED-mail: Bloomberg reports on the discovery of Ebola Reston in Philippine hogs.

International scientists will converge on farms in the Philippines to help local authorities discover how pigs contracted Ebola-Reston, a monkey-killing strain not known to harm people. The findings may help identify which species carries the virus in the wild without getting sick, enabling the pathogen to persist undetected in the environment, said Juan Lubroth, head of infectious diseases in the animal health unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome.


Note that bats, those flying rodents of death, are still the main suspects for filovirus reservoirs. Ebola Reston first came to Reston, Virginia in Philippine monkeys, but this is the first known occurrence of Ebola in pigs. Ebola Reston is not believed to be harmful to humans.

No comments: