"As diseases such as Ebola and MERS jump from creatures to humans, we need to keep a closer eye on wildlife illnesses."

"The virus was swift and lethal, claiming 162 lives in just three months. It left behind corpses covered in skin lesions and showing signs of severe pneumonia.

Had the victims been human, the 2011 outbreak would have dominated the 24-hour news cycle. But, since the dead and dying were harbor seals washing up on the shores of New England, the story didn’t capture the nation’s attention, let alone the world’s.

That sort of thinking, public health officials say, is precisely why people are at risk from a range of potentially deadly diseases. We ignore wildlife diseases at our own peril, because a new or reemerging virus capable of killing animals also could be the harbinger of a human pandemic, such as Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS and MERS."

Mark Strauss reports for National Geographic June 17, 2015. [2]