Ebola Virus Field Sample Collection

Sampling wildlife for ebolaviruses presents the researcher with a multitude of challenges, foremost of which is safety. Throughout the methods described in this chapter, personal safety and personal protective equipment (PPE) will be reiterated for each methodology. The methods described here are those used to successfully detect and isolate marburgviruses from their natural reservoir, Rousettus aegyptiacus, and therefore should be applicable for diagnostic testing for ebolaviruses via RT-PCR, ELISA, and IHC techniques.Although an ebolavirus natural reservoir has yet to be identified, the majority of disease ecologists believe the reservoir to belong to the order Chiroptera (bats). The methods presented in this chapter are presented with bats as an example, but all of these methods would be applicable to other species of wildlife with few or no modifications.