Researchers at the Helmholtz Institute for One Health (HIOH), a site of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), together with an interdisciplinary team of partners, have identified the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus) as a likely natural reservoir of the monkeypox virus (MPXV). Their study was published today in Nature. The discovery was based on the detailed investigation of an mpox outbreak among wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire. Scientists combined ecological, behavioral, and molecular evidence to document, for the first time, the interspecies transmission of MPXV in the wild, from fire-footed rope squirrels to sooty mangabeys.
Mpox is a zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV) that can lead to severe illness in humans. It regularly spills over from wildlife to humans in West and Central Africa, and some of these spillovers have recently sparked large global outbreaks sustained by human-to-human transmission. In order to prevent such outbreaks effectively, it is crucial to gain a thorough understanding of how the virus circulates in wildlife and what triggers spillover events.
A deadly outbreak among mangabeys
For decades, the researchers now at HIOH have worked closely with the Taï Chimpanzee Project to monitor the health of wild chimpanzees, sooty mangabeys, and other wildlife in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire—a long-term commitment that proved essential to detecting this transmission event. In early 2023, the team identified an outbreak of mpox in a well-studied group of sooty mangabeys: About one-third of the group showed clinical signs of disease, and four infants died.