【英语语言学习】埃博拉病毒对野生动物的威胁

The Ebola virus has killed more than 1,000 people in West Africa. But it also threatens wildlife, like the severely¹ endangered western lowland gorilla². VOA’s Steve Baragona reports that the spread of Ebola shows how animal diseases spill over the barrier between animals and humans to infect people.

What killed the chimpanzee?

One day in 1996, boys from a village in northern Gabon found a dead chimpanzee in the forest. They took it home, and the villagers prepared the animal for food. The World Health Organization says this started an Ebola outbreak that killed 21 people.

Years later, writer David Quammen made a reporting trip to Gabon. He met two men from that village who were there during the Ebola outbreak. They said their families were not the only ones affected³.

“At the time Ebola was hitting their village, they saw something strange. Nearby in the forest, they saw a pile of 13 dead gorillas⁴.”

The killer⁵? Ebola. Mr. Quammen says for the western lowland gorilla, Ebola has been devastating⁶ -- extremely destructive. He spoke⁷ to VOA on Skype.

“There has been an epidemic⁸ wave of death passing through gorilla populations across central Africa, a wave of Ebola that has been killing⁹ them as well as occasionally killing humans.”

Peter Walsh of the University of Cambridge in England studied gorillas in a Congolese wildlife protection area in the early 2000s. At that time, two Ebola outbreaks struck. Ninety to 95 percent of the gorillas simply disappeared.

Mr. Walsh says he and his team estimated that Ebola would destroy 45 percent of the population in just one generation.

Mr. Walsh participated in writing a study of the situation of the western lowland gorilla. The study resulted in placement of the animal on the critically endangered list.

Disease and the Spillover Effect

For David Quammen, the story of the 13 dead gorillas outside the Gabon village shows how new infectious diseases are connecting humans and animals.

Mr. Quammen wrote a book called Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic. This book describes how these diseases jump, or move, from animals to people at an increasing rate.

This is not new.

Bubonic plague, for example, jumped from rodents¹⁰ like rats to humans through infected fleas¹¹, a tiny biting insect. That plague killed as many as 60 percent of Europeans in the 14th century.

But David Quammen says many new diseases, especially viruses, seem to be developing.

“Something seems to be different because we’ve seen a lot of these new diseases, especially viral diseases, emerging over the last five or six decades. And that, of course, raises the question of, why? What’s different now?”

Mr. Quammen says one reason is that the human population is going deeper and deeper into habitats – or living areas -- where humans are finding new creatures.

“There are now seven billion of us on the planet. We’re going into these diverse ecosystems¹². We’re cutting down trees, we’re building mines, we’re building villages and roads. And we’re coming in contact with these animals. And we’re giving the viruses those animals carry the opportunity to jump to a new host, to spill over into human populations.”

Contamination Is A Two-Way Street

In the world of diseases, contamination -- spreading germs -- goes two ways.

Peter Walsh says ecotourism has helped protect the living areas of apes. But he says people taking those environmental trips are killing the apes they come to see. He says this happens because people bring their viruses with them.

“Human respiratory viruses are the number one source of death in habituated chimpanzees and gorillas. In chimpanzees, half of the deaths are caused by human respiratory viruses.”

Mr. Walsh wants apes that come near tourists to receive vaccine¹³ against human diseases such as measles¹⁴.

He and his scientific team also call for better enforcement of laws against harming the severely endangered western lowland gorilla. In addition, they are asking for better protection of their decreasing habitat.

But the gorillas are still defenseless to a disease like Ebola that kills both humans and our wild relatives.

I’m Anna Matteo.

1 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

2 gorilla   

n.大猩猩，暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• I was awed by the huge gorilla.那只大猩猩使我惊惧。
• A gorilla is just a speechless animal.猩猩只不过是一种不会说话的动物。

3 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

4 gorillas   

n.大猩猩( gorilla的名词复数 )；暴徒，打手

参考例句：

• the similitude between humans and gorillas 人类和大猩猩的相像
• Each family of gorillas is led by a great silverbacked patriarch. 每个大星星家族都由一个魁梧的、长着银色被毛的族长带领着。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

6 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

7 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

8 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

9 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

10 rodents   

n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Rodents carry diseases and are generally regarded as pests. 啮齿目动物传播疾病，常被当作害虫对待。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some wild rodents in Africa also harbor the virus. 在非洲，有些野生啮齿动物也是储毒者。 来自辞典例句

11 fleas   

n.跳蚤( flea的名词复数 )；爱财如命；没好气地（拒绝某人的要求）

参考例句：

• The dog has fleas. 这条狗有跳蚤。
• Nothing must be done hastily but killing of fleas. 除非要捉跳蚤，做事不可匆忙。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 ecosystems   

n.生态系统( ecosystem的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There are highly sensitive and delicately balanced ecosystems in the forest. 森林里有高度敏感、灵敏平衡的各种生态系统。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert. 马达加斯加生态系统类型多样，从雨林到半荒漠等不一而足。 来自辞典例句

13 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

14 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。