Animals in the DRC

Many diseases that infect humans may also infect primates. The infectious agents that cause the following diseases may survive in soil tainted with fecal matter for up to six months: hepatitis A, poliovirus, tapeworm, and tuberculosis bacillus

In November/December 2002 the Ebola virus caused the deaths of many gorillas and chimpanzees; including 8 gorilla groups that had been studied by researchers since 1994

  Prevention of chicken disease will save social, direct and infrastructure costs.

Production of disease tolerant cloned cattle in Africa

project aims to provide active leadership of related industry and establishment of livestock reproductive research in Africa

Towards development of a vaccine for Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia

Improving livestock disease control and product safety

as the lowland populations have been progressively fragmented and reduced

a key conservation strategy for both subpopulations of Mountain Gorillas is tourism

concern about the risk of disease transmission and disturbance to the gorillas

Threats included incursions by militia, habitat destruction for firewood and farmland, illegal cattle grazing, illegal timber extraction, and illegal hunting, including snares set for other mammals such as antelope that can injure or kill gorillas

Although not yet documented in gorillas, human-origin viral respiratory disease has recently been shown to cause high mortality among habituated chimpanzees

Transmission of infectious disease agents has been proven among habituated wild gorillas, people, domestic animals and other wild animals

There has also been a resurgence of poaching for the illegal pet trade and bushmeat (Kalpers et al. 2003) and since 2003, 12 orphans (both Grauer’s and Mountain Gorillas) have been confiscated and taken into the care of veterinarians. In 2007, at least eight gorillas were shot dead in three incidents in Virunga NP

the Mikeno sector, where DRC’s Mountain Gorillas are found, has been under rebel control and park authorities have been prevented from monitoring the gorillas.

region remains volatile and the gorillas vulnerable, despite the efforts of international NGOs and UN observers

Virunga National Park suffered extensive damage by armed bands of soldiers and refugees from neighboring camps, who harvested some 36 million trees from the park and hunted gorillas and other animals. Garamba National Park, near Sudan, experienced raids from Sudanese soldiers who hunted endangered wildlife using automatic weapons, while Okapi Faunal Reserve, home to the Ituri Forest and more species of monkeys (13) than anywhere else in the world, was ravaged by refugee migrations and marauding bands of militias, who looted and stole conservation equipment and killed park staff.

One of the most important centers of plant and animal diversity in the Congo rainforest is the lowland Ituri Fores

This entry lists major infectious diseases likely to be encountered in countries where the risk of such diseases is assessed to be very high as compared to the United States

leads to malaise and irregular fevers and, in advanced cases when the parasites invade the central nervous system, coma and death

cattle and wild animals act as reservoir hosts for the parasites.

Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever - tick-borne viral disease; infection may also result from exposure to infected animal blood or tissue;

Lassa fever - viral disease carried by rats of the genus Mastomys

Rift Valley fever - viral disease affecting domesticated animals and humans;

transmission is by mosquito and other biting insects; infection may also occur through handling of infected meat or contact with blood;

Leptospirosis - bacterial disease that affects animals and humans;

infection occurs through contact with water, food, or soil contaminated by animal urine;

aerosolized dust or soil contact disease acquired through inhalation of aerosols contaminated with rodent urine:

Plague - bacterial disease transmitted by fleas normally associated with rats;

Rabies - viral disease of mammals usually transmitted through the bite of an infected animal, most commonly dogs; virus affects the central nervous system causing brain alteration and death; symptoms initially are non-specific fever and headache progressing to neurological symptoms; death occurs within days of the onset of symptoms.

over 50 per cent of Africa’s tropical forests.

orests and woodlands cover half of the DRC’s total surface area of 2.3 million km² and play a critically important role in maintaining global climatic cycles.

 DRC contains 80 per cent of the world’s reserves of columnite-tantalite (coltan) and 10 per cent of the world’s copper.

Approximately 70 per cent of the population lives under the poverty line.

Fewer than 720 mountain gorillas struggle to survive

Improving livestock disease control and product safety

killings took place in the Virunga National Park between February 7 and 25.

IDPE accused "soldiers of the 15th and 18th Brigades of the FARDC" (the DRC army) of poaching and said they were acting "under orders from officers"

charged a fee to local poachers, charcoal burners and fishermen in a protection racket.

Virunga Park, on the north-eastern border with Uganda, is a base not only to army units but to warring militia groups and rebel forces, all of whom kill animals for food and chop down trees to make fire.

includes Lake Edward, which in 1980 had the world's biggest population of hippos, numbering about 27 000.

FARDC corporal was killed by a hippopotamus while on a clandestine fishing trip.

Virunga National Park is classed as a World Heritage Site by Unesco and it is the oldest game reserve in Africa. It is home notably to 200 mountain gorillas and a small population of plains gorillas, a species strongly faced with the threat of extinction.