Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...tbreak-is-killing-off-rare-monkeys-in-brazil/
27 January 2017
Yellow fever outbreak is killing off rare monkeys in Brazil
By Adrian Barnett in S?o Paulo, Brazil
Rare monkeys in the forests of Brazil are being decimated by yellow fever.
The outbreak started in late 2016 and, as is often the case in South America, it has spread to humans, killing at least 50 since the start of 2017. The authorities have rushed vaccines to hospitals, where long queues await inoculation.
But there is no vaccine for monkeys who are dying en masse in Esp?rito Santo and Minas Gerais, the two states so far worst hit.
?Some 80 to 90 per cent of the brown howler monkeys are infected or have already died,? says Sergio Mendes at the Federal University of Esp?rito Santo in Vitoria, Brazil. ?This is a true catastrophe. These outbreaks happen periodically, but this is the worst I?ve ever seen.?
Mendes knows of 400 howler monkey deaths in the state, and he believes this is likely to be only 10 per cent of the total, with the greatest losses happening largely unseen in remote forested areas...
27 January 2017
Yellow fever outbreak is killing off rare monkeys in Brazil
By Adrian Barnett in S?o Paulo, Brazil
Rare monkeys in the forests of Brazil are being decimated by yellow fever.
The outbreak started in late 2016 and, as is often the case in South America, it has spread to humans, killing at least 50 since the start of 2017. The authorities have rushed vaccines to hospitals, where long queues await inoculation.
But there is no vaccine for monkeys who are dying en masse in Esp?rito Santo and Minas Gerais, the two states so far worst hit.
?Some 80 to 90 per cent of the brown howler monkeys are infected or have already died,? says Sergio Mendes at the Federal University of Esp?rito Santo in Vitoria, Brazil. ?This is a true catastrophe. These outbreaks happen periodically, but this is the worst I?ve ever seen.?
Mendes knows of 400 howler monkey deaths in the state, and he believes this is likely to be only 10 per cent of the total, with the greatest losses happening largely unseen in remote forested areas...