{"id":9814,"date":"2025-07-02T13:48:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:48:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=9814"},"modified":"2025-07-02T13:48:44","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T18:48:44","slug":"how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/07\/02\/how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues\/","title":{"rendered":"How does Marburg virus spread between species? Young Ugandan scientist\u2019s photos give important\u00a0clues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues-259806\">The Conversation<\/a> In the shadows of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pN-M_pi9Fmw\">Python Cave<\/a>, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound \u2013 formed by bat excrement \u2013 and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (<em>Rousettus aegyptiacus<\/em>) found in this cave are\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plospathogens\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.ppat.1002877\">known carriers<\/a>\u00a0of one of the world\u2019s deadliest viruses:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/marburg-virus-disease\">Marburg<\/a>, a close cousin of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/news-room\/fact-sheets\/detail\/ebola-disease\">Ebola<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Predation on fruit bats at Python Cave filmed by Bosco Atukwatse and VSPT Kyambura Lion Project.\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/au3lp8QiS-4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Over just four months,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2025.06.16.659814v1\">our cameras recorded 261 predator encounters<\/a>: crowned eagles, Nile monitors, leopards, pythons and blue monkeys all caught feeding on, or scavenging from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.plos.org\/plospathogens\/article?id=10.1371\/journal.ppat.1002877\">this virus-harbouring colony<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And yet, this wasn\u2019t the work of a global health agency or virology lab. The discovery came from a 25-year-old Ugandan undergraduate,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/independent.academia.edu\/BoscoAtukwatse\">Bosco Atukwatse<\/a>, working with our small&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/volcanoessafaris.com\/all-activities\/kyambura-lion-monitoring-project\/\">Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust Kyambura Lion Project<\/a>&nbsp;team in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ugandawildlife.org\/national-parks\/queen-elizabeth-national-park\/\">Queen Elizabeth National Park<\/a>. His only tools: a trail camera, curiosity and ecological instinct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am a conservation scientist with over 17 years of experience in wildlife ecology, monitoring and human-wildlife conflict. I\u2019m the co-founder of the Kyambura Lion Project, which made this discovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-does-marburg-virus-spread-between-species-young-ugandan-scientists-photos-give-important-clues-259806\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<!-- <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" title=\" EYLuN  epmXOghuUU DUXEFHJ\"> EYLuN  epmXOghuUU DUXEFHJ<\/a> --><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Conversation In the shadows of\u00a0Python Cave, Uganda, a leopard leaps from a guano mound \u2013 formed by bat excrement \u2013 and sinks its teeth into a bat. But this is no ordinary bat colony. The thousands of Egyptian fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) found in this cave are\u00a0known carriers\u00a0of one of the world\u2019s deadliest viruses:\u00a0Marburg, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marburg-virus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9814"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9815,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9814\/revisions\/9815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}