黑猩猩和大猩猩剩余的野生种群列在濒危物种名单上。因森林砍伐和狩猎所造成的栖息地的丧失以及“埃博拉”病毒感染，使得整个中部非洲黑猩猩和大猩猩种群数量急剧下降。现在，研究人员又发现了另一个以前未曾发现的威胁---炭疽热。他们发现，象牙海岸的"泰国家公园”中黑猩猩突然死亡率异乎寻常地高是由炭疽热引起的。炭疽热病毒（Bacillus anthracis）被发现至少是6只黑猩猩的死因。人们以前不知道热带雨林会窝藏炭疽热病毒。除了威胁黑猩猩和大猩猩外，炭疽热病毒也可能会威胁当地人的健康，因为这里的人们将灵长类动物作为“野味”进行非法捕杀和食用。
Nature 430, 451 - 452 (22 July 2004); doi:10.1038/nature02722
Anthrax kills wild chimpanzees in a tropical rainforest
Infectious disease has joined habitat loss and hunting as threats to the survival of the remaining wild populations of great apes. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the causative agents. We investigated an unusually high number of sudden deaths observed over nine months in three communities of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) in the Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. Here we report combined pathological, cytological and molecular investigations that identified Bacillus anthracis as the cause of death for at least six individuals. We show that anthrax can be found in wild non-human primates living in a tropical rainforest, a habitat not previously known to harbour B. anthracis. Anthrax is an acute disease that infects ruminants, but other mammals, including humans, can be infected through contacting or inhaling high doses of spores or by consuming meat from infected animals. Respiratory and gastrointestinal anthrax are characterized by rapid onset, fever, septicaemia and a high fatality rate without early antibiotic treatment. Our results suggest that epidemic diseases represent substantial threats to wild ape populations, and through bushmeat consumption also pose a hazard to human health.
Figure 1 Histological section of lung tissues of the chimpanzee Léo. Thin sections of altered tissues were stained with haematoxylin and eosin. Under a light microscope, long rod-shaped bacteria (arrows) were visible. Left panel, section of the lung parenchyma with oedema and emphysema. Right panel, intravascular bacteria. Scale bars, 20 µm.
