An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox

A monkey making a meal of a squirrel may have sparked an outbreak. 

In early 2023, mpox broke out among a group of a few dozen sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) living in Côte d’Ivoire’s Taï National Park. Roughly one-third of the monkeys developed symptoms such as skin lesions and four infants died. Surveys of the park’s wildlife revealed that the outbreak began after a member of the group ate a fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus), researchers report February 11 in Nature.

#newsletter-helper svg { width: auto; fill: #f1563e; } #newsletter-helper { display: flex; border-top: 1px solid gray; padding-top: 10px; padding-left: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; max-width: 900px; margin: auto } .zephr-form-container {

→ Continue reading at Science News

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

The Last Mystery of Antarctica’s ‘Blood Falls’ Has Finally Been Solved

There is a corner of Antarctica that looks like something out of a David Cronenberg movie. It's located in the dry valleys of McMurdo,...

Intricate silk helps net-casting spiders ensnare prey in webs

Senior physics writer Emily Conover has a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Chicago. She is a two-time winner of the D.C....

A lab on wheels is tracking HIV spread in war-torn Ukraine

The invasion of Ukraine has stymied healthcare services, allowing diseases such as HIV to spread unchecked. The rate of contagion has been difficult to...