A local delicacy in north-east Thailand, made from raw fish, has been found to be behind a high incidence of liver cancer in the area, and doctors are trying to educate people about the risk.
The test, dubbed VirScan, and research surrounding it is the subject of a new report published in the journal Science. For the study, scientists screened sera, a part of the blood, from 569 people in the U.S., South Africa, Thailand, and Peru and tested for more than 200 types of viruses.
While the loss of these animals is concerning for species conservation, now researchers at the University of Florida have shown that overhunting can have widespread effects on the forest itself.
Overhunting leads to the extinction of a dominant tree species, Miliusa horsfieldii, or the Miliusa beech, with likely cascading effects on other forest biota.