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. 2005 Dec 1;438(7068):575-6.
doi: 10.1038/438575a.

Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus

Eric M Leroy  1 , Brice Kumulungui, Xavier Pourrut, Pierre Rouquet, Alexandre Hassanin, Philippe Yaba, André Délicat, Janusz T Paweska, Jean-Paul Gonzalez, Robert Swanepoel
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Fruit bats as reservoirs of Ebola virus

Eric M Leroy et al. Nature. .

Abstract

The first recorded human outbreak of Ebola virus was in 1976, but the wild reservoir of this virus is still unknown. Here we test for Ebola in more than a thousand small vertebrates that were collected during Ebola outbreaks in humans and great apes between 2001 and 2003 in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. We find evidence of asymptomatic infection by Ebola virus in three species of fruit bat, indicating that these animals may be acting as a reservoir for this deadly virus.

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