Nonhuman Primates as Zika Reservoirs in the Americas

Many viruses are known to have jumped to humans from other animal species (including influenza and HIV), but the reverse is also possible - human viruses can infect other animal species, creating a reservoir that maintains the threat of human epidemics long after every human case has been treated. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are studying nonhuman primates in South America to see if they have become a potential reservoir for Zika. In order to do so, they developed a noninvasive way to test nonhuman primates for Zika using fecal samples and published their work in PLOS ONE.

While Zika can be found in a variety of bodily fluids, including semen, saliva, blood, and urine, feces presents the safest and easiest way for researchers to collect the samples at scale. However, feces is loaded with contaminants and RNA viruses are often not as resistant to the environment, making it a difficult thing to test for. The method from WashU was validated against a gold-standard qRT-PCR based assay and has now been used to evaluate samples from nearly 50 animals in Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil.

Read more at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190319182238.htm

- Arjun Kumar