A new study published today in Science reveals a close correlation between species in the wildlife trade and animals that are known to have passed pathogens on to humans. There's a strong link, says Jerome Gippet, an ecologist at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland.
The strain the animals have contains a mutation allowing it to more easily transmit between mammals. It is also a different variation than the ones found in dairy cows and commercial poultry. This one is Eurasian in origin, first seen in 2022. It has been detected in birds that fly along the Pacific Flyway, and is responsible for a mass mortality event in 2023 in northern fur seals on an island in eastern Russia.
Bats carry a lot of very deadly pathogens like Ebola virus, Nipah, Hendra, coronavirus, and also rabies virus. People are finding more and more bat-borne viruses. When such viruses are transmitted to humans, the results are often fatal so there's a lot of interest in trying to prevent spillover in the first place.
For the first time, cameras in Africa captured a 'dynamic network' of wildlife interacting with thousands of infected bats believed to be carrying the Marburg virus, which is a rare but extremely dangerous disease that belongs to the same family as Ebola. The new videos revealed at least 14 different types of animals, including leopards, hyenas, monkeys, birds and rats, actively hunting herds of Egyptian fruit bats.
During a routine exam, veterinarians found Baylisascaris eggs in the dog's system - the first such formal report of raccoon roundworm in a dog in county history, according to a Los Angeles County Department of Public Health news release. In 2024, two South Bay residents were sickened by the parasite, which can infect the brain, spinal cord and eyes and lead to eye disease and swelling of the brain.