Transmission of the Ebola virus in the wild
Keywords:
Bats, Ebola virus, saliva, trasmission, wildlifeAbstract
Introduction: The Ebola virus has been found in several non-human and unrelated mammalian species which has made it even more difficult to determine transmission routes. The bats are serve as a vector in the transmission to wild mammals and humans. Hypotheses connecting among wildlife species and humans are generally lacking. Ebola transmission is via bodily fluids of infected animals.Result and discussion: I propose a fruit-saliva connection as a major pathway among Ebola transmission. Bats do not eat large fruits whole ingesting the juices but ejecting the fibrous pulp, they also urinate and defecate during foraging bouts producing a near constant nightly “rain†Ebola virus fluids. Close contact among infected individual in a social group would likely spread the virus from infected to non-infected individuals rapidly. Under our “fruit rain†hypothesis, Ebola transmission to humans can occur by direct human consumption of infected fruit, through contaminated animals, and via water saliva infected.References
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