One of the great mysteries of the Monkeypox virus It has been determined by his ‘reservoir’ hosts-Read and spread the virus without sick animals.
Now, international scientists suggest that the response is: Sutondo rope squirrel (Funisciurus Pyrropus), forest housing found in the west and central Africa.
Although the name “MonkeyPox” comes from the discovery of laboratory monkeys in 1958, the researchers have alleged rodents and other small mammals in Africa, being the host of the reservoir. And the studies published in the last year have shown that African brushes in MPOX, the disease caused by viruses, are fed from animals from humans to various transmission events.
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The determination of viral reservoirs is essential to break the evil cycles of transmission, he says MBala plateEpidemoonogue at the National Biomedical Institute of Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. By identifying sources, scientists can work with local communities to design strategies to protect people from infection, such as safe manipulation of wild animals.
Identification of the squirrel is “extraordinary” detectives and provides compelling evidence, says Alexandre Hassanin, who studies the evolution of Monkeyspox at the University of Paris Sorbian. He and others talked NatureHowever, it is not sure that the study is definitively established F. Pyrropus Monkeypox as a reservoir, but they applaud the work of long-term wildlife care.
The report was published as a preventage, before the peer review, on the Square Research server on 8 April. (Research Plaza Springer is owned by nature, NaturePublisher.)
Long-term surveillance
Although mpox It has affected Decades in Africacaught titles around the world in 2022 When the virus aroused the global occurrencefed through human transmission. Last August, the World Health Organization Another declared global emergency After the worrying virus strain, it spread to African countries beforehand.
As these deaths have been more common, A question about the minds of researchers have been sources of their animals. A trace was founded in the National Coast of Taï National Park in 2023, a group of researchers followed by a group of Mangabeys sooty (CercoCebus atyyys) For many years. At the end of January, CarMe Riutord-Fe, Abidjan was an ecological disease of the Swiss Scientific Research Center, saw a baby mangun with red skin injuries on chest, chest and legs. Settled injuries, MPXA’s characteristics, quickly spread throughout his body, and died two days later.
Within two months, the disease spread almost a third of the group of 80 Mangabeys; 4 of them were killed. The team identified the monkeypox virus by causing explosions and sequencing the entire entire viral genome in infected animals. They were the same, suggesting that the explosions were created from a single source, Livia Patrono, Greifswald, Germany and Ecologist health care for the author of the study author.
But what was the source?
For most research, scientists begin to collect animal samples after weeks or months after the first reported cases. Animals do not always have the most detectable level of virus, and the burstead managers would leave the “crime scene” when researchers arrive, the director of Fabian Leenderz, Helmholtz Institute. This makes it difficult to determine the origin of the disease, he says.
In the case of the Mangorty Brush, however, “when we happened,” said the loender. His team controls the free population, non-human-free people in the Taï forest to better understand the pathogenes that are important for humans every day.
When Mpox rang in 2023, he archived samples of the urine and feetes of manga, as well as the tissue and swab of dead animals found in the forest, they were invaluable. Monkeypox virus called Bako gathered in the fecal samples collected on December 6, 2022.
Three evidence, then the researchers concluded that the symptoms survived without developing infections, caught the virus after eating a fireproof squirrel. First, they saw the manabeys hunt and eating F. Pyrropus. The second they found F. Pyrropus With a virus equal to the same as Carcass polluting Mangabeys, the fecal samples of Bako became positive. And finally identified F. Pyrropus Adna Bako’s positive positive sample.
“It’s incredible that things fit well,” says the loverters.
Reservoir network?
Although scientists found the monkeypox virus on the squirrels, this was the first evidence of the transmission of cross-specific species.
However, Eco-Ecological diseases at the Jury Doreen Doreen, Stage of the Yaundé Cameroon Center, are still a host of rope by the jury, whether they are suspected species that contract Monkeypox.
To prove that a species is a host of a reservoir, Djuicy says, most animals must prove that they could not keep the virus and spill. But there is still proof of that F. Pyrropus, It adds.
Other rodent species such as rats pockets (Cricetomys SPP.), Monkeypox is also involved in transmission, Mbala says. So the fireplace rope squirrels could be part of the animal species that are responsible for maintaining the virus.
Leenderz says his team is constantly and investigating past monkeypox infections in small mammals, including squirrels, in the national forest. They will examine how these animals interact with forest habitats and humans.
Consuming wild animals is very popular because of complex reasons in many parts of Africa, including tradition, inanimate, civil and commercial demand, Leenderz says. These factors, added when they stopped in 1980 after taking vaccinations to the immunity of people.
This article reproduces with permission and has been First posted On April 8, 2025.
