Wild Primate Populations in Emerging Infectious Disease Research: The Missing Link?

Authors

Nathan D. Wolfe, Harvard School of Public Health
Ananias A. Escalante, United States Centers for Disease Control and PreventionFollow
William B. Karesh, Wildlife Conservation Society
Annelisa Kilbourn, Wildlife Conservation Society
Andrew Spielman, Harvard School of Public Health
Altaf A. Lal, United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ORCID IDs

Escalante 0000-0002-1532-3430

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

6-1998

Citation

Emerging Infectious Diseases (1998) 4(2): 149-158

doi: 10.3201/eid0402.980202

Comments

United States government work, public domain

Abstract

Wild primate populations, an unexplored source of information regarding emerging infectious disease, may hold valuable clues to the origins and evolution of some important pathogens. Primates can act as reservoirs for human pathogens. As members of biologically diverse habitats, they serve as sentinels for surveillance of emerging pathogens and provide models for basic research on natural transmission dynamics. Since emerging infectious diseases also pose serious threats to endangered and threatened primate species, studies of these diseases in primate populations can benefit conservation efforts and may provide the missing link between laboratory studies and the well-recognized needs of early disease detection, identification, and surveillance.