Chewed plants do help to detect viruses in Endangered Mountain Gorillas

Recently, it has been established that chewed leaves, bark and fruit which have been discarded by mountain gorillas have proven to provide a very simple way to test for viruses in endangered and gigantic apes- the mountain gorillas. This has been found out that, it tests viruses in them without disturbing them. This research was carried by scientists from the University of California in the United States of America. The man behind this study is called Davis and he established this after studying the endangered mountain gorillas and the golden monkeys in East and central Africa.  Davis is   a worker at UC Davis’ One Health Institute in the United States and also one of the gorilla doctors. This study was also published in the American Journal of Primatology. The study carried by UC Davis was purely nonprofit making and was led by nonprofit Mountain Gorilla Veterinary project and UC Davis.

It has been found for a very long time that it is the first time that viruses have been detected on plants which have been chewed by these primates, the endangered mountain gorillas. This was revealed by Tierra Smiley Evans who is a graduate student at the One Health Institute. It was established that this is the technique people can use without distressing the endangered mountain gorillas in their natural behaviors and settings.

 According to Davis’ research, it was established that approximately 880 endangered mountain species which are critically endangered do remain in the Virunga conservation Range. This length is between Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Uganda, it is majorly at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. It has been established that roughly 60 percent of these gorillas are habituated to the humans basically to support the work of eco-tourism in these countries. This therefore puts them at a very high risk of contracting the pathogens.

There are various infectious diseases which were introduced by humans and these majorly pose the major greatest threats to the survival of the endangered mountain gorillas. These are all highlights of the study which was carried out. Usually, the blood samples and rectal swabs have been oftenly used to detect viruses in primates.  According to Davis, for the endangered mountain gorillas, anesthesia is only performed when a gorilla is sick or injured due to human related cause, not when they are very health. He further added that simple and noninvasive sampling methods are needed to greatly monitor the health of the endangered mountain gorillas while in the wilderness.

During this study, it was established by the people who got involved in this research that the primates at a distance, collected plant samples chewed and discarded by 383 wild mountain gorillas and 18 golden monkeys, and analyzed them to find viruses shed by mouth. The method which were used proved effective for detecting both RNA and DNA viruses. This was very s important because RNA viruses are more likely to be transmitted from humans to wildlife and the reverse is true that is vice versa. It was also established that the noninvasive method could be used in combination with feces and urine sampling to access the most common routes of viral shedding in the endangered mountain gorillas. This can be used to detect viruses also in other wild species where health monitoring is critical for conservation management.