Wild great ape health and disease: threats and challenges in human-dominated landscapes

Incidence of zoonotic diseases in great apes has great relevance both for the preservation of wild great apes, and the risks are increasing as vulnerability to disease transmission between great apes and humans is heightened through increased human encroachment into ape territory, changing land use patterns, habitat destruction and poaching. Isolated and vulnerable wild great ape populations living in close proximity to humans, and particularly those populations being exposed to great ape research, habituation and tourism, are greatly at risk of infection of pathogens.
This project aims for surveillance and monitoring of health and zoonosis in chimpanzees and gorillas in the non-protected periphery of the Dja Biosphere Reserve and reveals implications for great ape survival and human health. In particular, this project investigates the incidence, occurrence, transmission and pathogenicity of SIV, anthrax, yaws, malaria and nematodes in wild great ape populations in and around the Dja Biosphere Reserve, Cameroon.