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It is also important to recognize the potential threat to African
ape conservation posed by naturally occurring pathogens. Recent
studies suggest that Ebola may be contributing substantially to
great ape declines in central Africa (see chapter Ebola; Leroy
et
al.,
2004). Also troubling are findings of higher mortality and
lower reproductive success in wild chimpanzees infected with
SIV, long thought to be non-pathogenic in apes, compared to un-
infected individuals (Keele
et al.,
2009). Lastly, anthrax infections
with no known link to humans or livestock have killed wild goril-
las and chimpanzees at multiple sites (Leendertz
et al.,
2006).
Our capacity to understand the role of anthropogenic and
natural selective pressures on wild primate populations is
challenged by the need to effectively form multidisciplinary
teams bridging conservationists and researchers that can re-
spond adaptively to the development of integrated theory and
next-generation methods and technologies while maintaining
standardization to allow for meaningful meta-analyses and
model formulation embracing animal health, human health
and environmental health issues (Leendertz
et al.,
2006; Gil-
lespie
et al.,
2008).
We’ve known for a long time that poaching and habitat loss were
causing great declines in ape numbers, but what we’ve found out
recently is that infectious disease is also causing steep declines in
many ape populations.
There are really two kinds of disease that are causing these de-
clines. There are what you might call natural diseases, like the
Ebola virus, which has killed about a third of the gorillas in the
world in about the last fifteen years and there are also diseases
that are being introduced to gorillas and chimpanzees from hu-
mans. For instance, we have had a series of respiratory disease
outbreaks at tourist and research sites over recent years that
have killed a lot of gorillas and chimpanzees. That, in particular
the fact that these diseases are coming from humans, gives us
a particular impetus to do something about this. Because if we
don’t, gorillas aren’t going to go extinct tomorrow, and neither
will chimpanzees, but in the next twenty, thirty, forty years, we
are going to lose most of the populations, or we will be left with a
very small handful.
What I, and a group of other people have been doing, is looking at
options to prevent those disease deaths. In particular, we are look-
ing at vaccination; what we are trying to do, is to take human vac-
cines and adapt them for use on wild apes. Now this has only been
done once or twice before, and so we are at a sort of new horizon for
ape conservation. What we are trying to do is take a very scientific
look at the process and be very safe, and make sure that the benefits
of vaccination outweigh the costs. We are doing a series of tests
and trials involving a lot of experts from different fields, virologists,
primatologists, veterinarians, and we are trying to come up with a
plan that will allow us to take the many human vaccines that are
now available, and in development, and use them on apes in the
wild. Right now, we have two pilot projects, we are adapting an
Ebola vaccine and a measles vaccine. The measles vaccine is very
safe and it has been used on hundreds of millions of children and
we are using that as a sort of proof of principle, and then we are also
trying to move in with the use of an Ebola vaccine, and that will
happen over about the next two years. If you’d like to hear more
about these efforts, you can go to
www.vaccinape.org.
Dr. Peter Walsh
VACCINAPE
INTERVIEW
“
We are at a new horizon
for ape conservation
”