Disease

Foot and Mouth Disease - South Africa

The department of agriculture, forestry and fisheries has quarantined an area in Vhembe in Limpopo, following positive laboratory results for foot-and-mouth disease in cattle in the district. The matter was reported to the World Organisation for Animal Health, resulting in SA’s foot-and-mouth-free status being temporarily suspended.

New Ebola-like Virus

Researchers have discovered a new Ebola-related virus in bats in China, a study says.

The potentially dangerous filovirus, known as Měnglà virus, comes from the Rousettus bat in Yunnan Province, China, and can lead to fatal fever diseases in humans, according to findings published Monday in Nature Microbiology.

While Měnglà shares some common characteristics to other filoviruses, it also has some differences. For one, it shares only 32 percent to 54 percent of its sequence of genes with other filoviruses. Plus, it also lives in different geographic locations.

And this new genus of filovirus fits right in between the Ebola and Marburg viruses on the evolutionary scale, the researchers said.