BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Scientists are racing
against time to find a vaccine for the highly-infectious Ebola virus that has
decimated western lowland gorilla populations.
Western lowland gorillas are the most common type, but even at that there are probably only between 50,000 and
100,000 remain in the wild, all of them in the forests of the Congo basin in
central Africa. All other types of gorilla, including the cross river gorilla,
the mountain gorilla, and the eastern lowland gorilla, total only a few
thousand, and are also found in Africa.
During the past 20 to 25 years, hunting and
disease alone have reduced the numbers of western lowland gorilla by 60 percent,
according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
"Throughout their range the great apes in central
Africa are being hammered by those triple threats: loss of habitat, hunting for
the bush meat trade, and disease," said Kenneth Cameron, a field veterinarian
with the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Republic of the Congo, at the
Gateways to Conservation 2008: The State of the Wild conference here this week.
"At their current rate of population decline, we stand to lose 80 percent of the
population of [the western lowland gorilla] over the next 10 years."
Because of the decimation caused by Ebola, the IUCN
elevated the status of the western gorilla from endangered to critically
endangered in September 2007.
Scientists say their only chance to save the species
is to combat Ebola, which kills about 95 percent of the gorillas it infects. The
virus causes massive internal bleeding in its victims, and has no known cure.
"These animals obviously need help," Cameron said.
"And we're hoping that being able to vaccinate them against one of their major
threats will be something that is possible, but it is too early to tell. We
don't know for sure that it's going to work, but we do feel we need to try."
Scientists hope to use a vaccine that's been
developed for humans on the animals, which share many of our genes.
(Agencies)
