Microbiologists from Canada have shown that the deadly Ebola virus could be transmitted between species without direct contact.
The research has raised fears that airborne transmission of the virus could be contributing to its spread in parts of Africa.
In a series of experiments, pigs carrying the Ebola virus were situated next to monkeys, but separated by a wire barrier. Eight days later, some monkeys began to show signs of Ebola, and had to be put down.
It's thought that the monkeys may have caught the virus by inhaling tiny droplets suspended in the air from the pigs' respiratory tracts. "What we suspect is happening is large droplets -- they can stay in the air, but not long, they don't go far," explained Gary Kobinger from Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory, to the BBC. "But they can be absorbed in the airway and this is how the infection starts, and this is what we think, because we saw a lot of evidence in the lungs of the non-human primates that the virus got in that way," he added.
In humans, Ebola causes extreme and fatal haemorrhagic fevers.
It's commonly acquired by close contact with blood and other bodily fluids from a number of species -- among them chimpanzees and gorillas.
However, the scientists' findings suggest that domestic and wild pigs may be a hidden reservoir of the most deadly form of the virus - Ebola Zaire.
Kobinger took pains to point out that the airborne transmission process is not like that of influenza. In the case of human Ebola outbreaks in Africa, he said: "The reality is that they are contained and they remain local, if it was really an airborne virus like influenza is it would spread all over the place, and that's not happening."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
