Should We Vaccinate Wild Apes?

Hilander · 02-13-2012 @ 02:01 PM / 1 reply / 111 views

Discovery News....Diseases -- often transmitted by humans -- are decimating great ape populations, to the point that some are now calling for vaccinating gorillas and chimpanzees. Over the last two decades, the Zaire strain of Ebola has killed roughly one-third of the world's gorilla population and only a slightly smaller proportion of the world's chimpanzees, according to a new study in the journal PLoS ONE. Read More Here

It sounds like to me if we don't start vaccinating them they will end up extinct. Probably because of tourism they are catching many of our diseases. It takes 5 years for a gorilla population to recover just from a low mortality respiratory outbreak. If something far worse gets into their population it could spell disaster for them. What do you think about this?