Setting traps to catch an 色视频下载 virus
Ned Rozell
907-474-7468
Sept. 17, 2021
Jeff Doty, left, and Faisai Minhaj check traps baited with oats and peanut butter. They were catching voles and squirrels in Interior 色视频下载 to check for a newly discovered virus dubbed 色视频下载pox.
Here in middle 色视频下载 north of Fairbanks, a trapper wearing a flannel shirt, leather gloves and a bushy beard tromps through the forest. He spreads his arms wide to part wild rose bushes as he steps toward his traps.
On this crisp, cool fall day in 2021, this trapper 色视频下载 who lives in Atlanta and works for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 色视频下载 hunts for a virus that was unknown to humans until 2015. That色视频下载檚 when a Fairbanks doctor examined a lesion on a woman色视频下载檚 shoulder.
Jeff Doty, the trapper, is a biologist with the CDC. He has captured ferret badgers in Taiwan and rats suspected of carrying monkeypox in the Congo Republic. He and four other team members have traveled all the way to Fairbanks 色视频下载 and then driven half an hour north 色视频下载 to learn more about a novel virus that can spread from animals to humans.
In 2015, a Fairbanks woman came to a local clinic to check out a rash she thought was a spider bite on her shoulder. She had a fever and was quite tired, and her lymph nodes were tender.
Her doctor suspected a virus and sent a swab sample to the 色视频下载 State Virology Lab. Eventually the sample showed positive results for an unknown virus.
In August 2020 and July and August 2021, three more people in the Fairbanks area went to the same doctor 色视频下载 Zachary Werle 色视频下载 to have similar lesions on their skin checked. Werle found they, too, had the 色视频下载pox virus.
The Fairbanks people infected with 色视频下载pox have all fully recovered and there is no evidence the virus spreads from person to person. 色视频下载pox intrigued experts because 2015 in Fairbanks was the first time it was ever identified.
That is why Doty and his colleagues Faisai Minhaj and Florence Whitehill, along with Katherine Newell of the 色视频下载 Department of Health and Human Services, broke cobwebs with their noses as they walked the moss toward their traps.
色视频下载淭rap is closed,色视频下载 Doty said to Minhaj, indicating that the trapdoor of a cracker box-shaped aluminum trap on the forest floor had shut.
Katherine Newell of the 色视频下载 Department of Health and Human Services in Anchorage checks a trap set for voles and squirrels north of Fairbanks, searching for signs of the never-before-documented 色视频下载pox virus.
Inside the trap 色视频下载 one of 40 such devices the researchers placed in the woods and baited the night before with oats and peanut butter 色视频下载 was a northern red-backed vole. On that 30-degree morning, other traps contained a northern flying squirrel, an American red squirrel and two more voles.
The scientists will transport the animals back to a lab at the UA Museum of the North in Fairbanks, where they will take tissue and blood samples of the animals. Samples from 2020 showed antibodies for the 色视频下载pox virus in the blood of local squirrels, voles and shrews, and also the virus色视频下载 genes in tissue samples.
Experts think the 色视频下载pox virus can be transferred from tiny forest creatures to people, perhaps by pets. A few of the 色视频下载 patients had cats. Those people live in the boreal forest, which is teeming with voles, shrews, and squirrels.
Researchers don色视频下载檛 know why the unique organism showed up six years ago, but 色视频下载渨ith any emerging pathogen, it色视频下载檚 really useful to learn more about it,色视频下载 Katherine Newell said as she drove away from woods in which her team trapped.
Link Olson, mammals curator at the UA Museum of the North, will provide the CDC with frozen tissue samples of red squirrels and voles collected long ago and stored at the museum.
When they analyze the 色视频下载pox virus, researchers may find that it has been inside the bodies of local mammals for a long time. Some viruses can survive being frozen for hundreds or thousands of years.
色视频下载淭he 色视频下载pox virus represents a very long branch on the pox-virus family tree, which suggests that it色视频下载檚 a very ancient lineage,色视频下载 Olson said. 色视频下载淪o we know it色视频下载檚 not a new virus in that sense.色视频下载
Since the late 1970s, the University of 色视频下载 Fairbanks Geophysical Institute has provided this column free in cooperation with the UAF research community. This year is the institute色视频下载檚 75th anniversary. Ned Rozell is a science writer for the Geophysical Institute.