Vaccinating Wild Apes Against Ebola

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Vaccinating Wild Apes Against Ebola
? Thomas Breuer WCS\MPI
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Ebola Zaire Outbreak Zone is Gorilla Homeland
Ebola outbreak sites
Also Chimpanzee Stronghold
Robust or Common Chimpanzee Pan troglodytes
Western Gorilla - Gorilla gorilla
Eastern Gorilla - Gorilla beringei
Bonobo - Pan paniscus
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Ebola Spreads In Outbreak Wave
Wave has already hit half of major ape parks.
Other major ape parks at risk.
Moving through reservoir host probably bats
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Catastrophic Decline

• Ebola has killed tens of thousands of gorillas
  and chimpanzees
• 95 Mortality in Outbreak Areas
• 50 of habitat affected
• 32 decline in world population
• May rise to 50 in Next 5-10 years
• But there is hope.

Western Gorilla Critically Endangered - Walsh
et al, World Conservation Union 2007
? Martin Harvey / WWF
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Vaccinating Apes Against Ebola is Feasible

• At least six vaccines protect lab monkeys against
  Ebola
• Should work on gorillas and chimpanzees

Labs Engaged
Laboratory Vaccine Platform Private
Sector AlphaVax Alpha Virus Replicon GenPhar
Adenovirus Integrated Biotherapeutics
Virus-Like Particles Government Health
Canada VSV NIH\VRC Adenovirus
? Martin Harvey / WWF
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Targeted Vaccination Program

• We can
• Monitor movement of wave
• Vaccinate ahead of wave
• Vaccinate only once at each site

? Michel Gunther/ WWF
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• Develop Detailed Business Plan
• (ongoing)
• 1 Million
• might lead to one or both of the following options

Save Key Research Tourism Groups
Protect Entire Populations
Darted Vaccine
Oral Vaccine
Vaccinate 100s of Apes
Vaccinate 1,000s of Apes
Vaccine Development Testing 2-3 Million
Vaccine Development Testing 3-6 Million
Field Vaccination Program 1.5 Million
Field Vaccination Program 2-3 Million
Project costing is approximate. Firm cost
estimates to be developed in Phase 1.
? Michel Gunther/ WWF
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Core Team

• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
  Anthropology (MPI)Funded by the German Federal
  Government, world leader on ape infectious
  diseases.
• The Center for Biosecurity of the University of
  Pittsburgh Medical Center UPMC)Independent
  nonprofit organization, which works to affect
  policy and practice in ways that lessen the
  illness, death, and civil disruption that would
  follow large-scale epidemics.
• World Wildlife Fund (WWF)The largest
  multinational conservation organization in the
  world, WWF has worked for more than 30 years in
  the Congo Basin, engaging conservation partners
  and protecting great apes for future generations.

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Current Partners

• Private Sector
• Biologics Consulting Group USA
• Four Seasons Ventures USA
• IDT Biologika, Dessau Germany
• Arnold and Porter USA
• Foundations
• Wallace Global Fund
• Arcus Foundation
• Universities
• Alabama-Birmingham,
• California-Berkeley, Edinburgh,
• Glasgow, Harvard, Montpelier, Mexico, Princeton,
  Stanford, Texas-Austin
• Governmental
• Department of Health Human Services USA
• National Center for Ecological Analysis and
  Synthesis USA
• Robert Koch Institute Germany
• US Army Medical Research Institute for Infectious
  Disease USA
• Wolfgang Koehler Primate Research Center, Zoo
  Leipzig Germany

? Michel Gunther/ WWF
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be a part of our work
Change photo Not western gorillas
? Timothy Geer / WWF