Over 7,000 monkeys in 3 facilities monitored

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Agriculture (DA) is monitoring more than 7,000 crab-eating monkeys in three research and breeding facilities in the country following the outbreak of Ebola Reston Virus (ERV) last month, Health Secretary Janette Garin said yesterday.

Garin said at least 11 monkeys have died, one of which tested positive for ERV infection, in one of the farms.

Garin said two of the facilities are engaged in breeding macaques. The other one serves as a conditioning facility before the monkeys are exported.

She said the monkeys manifested anorexia, one of the symptoms of the disease.

The operators of the facilities have reported the incident to the DA and the Department of Health.

“We could no longer test the dead monkeys because they were given formalin. What we need are fresh samples,” Garin told reporters.

Experts from the DA collected blood samples from the 14 other monkeys, nine of which tested positive for ERV.

For his part, DA Undersecretary for Livestock Jose Reano said they would monitor the monkeys until the incubation period for ERV ends on Sept. 21.

Reano asked the public, especially those who have pet monkeys at home, to avoid contact with them as a pre- cautionary measure against the disease.

“Don’t keep monkeys as pets. If they are ill, surrender them to the authorities so they could get the proper screening and treatment,” he said.

He said they are looking at bats as the possible source of the Ebola virus. Previous Ebola outbreaks, including the Ebola Zaire, which is infectious to humans, have been traced to bats.

Garin said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is doing bat surveillance to get an accurate picture of the bat community in relation to ERV.

She assured the public that ERV is not a threat to humans because it primarily infects monkeys.

Garin said over 60 workers at the monkey facilities who had close contact with the animals have tested negative for the Ebola virus.

The Ebola virus among Philippine monkeys was dis- covered 25 years ago.

According to Wikipedia, ERV was first detected in1990asanew strain of Ebola virus. It is the single member of the species Reston ebola virus. The virus was named after Reston, Virginia in the US where it was discovered.

In November 1989, scientist Thomas Geisbert discovered the Ebola virus in tissue samples taken from monkeys imported from the Philippines. – With Perseus Echeminada