Natural history of nonhuman primates after conjunctival exposure to Ebola virus

The Ebola viruses (EBOV) are pathogenic agents causing severely viral haemorrhagic fever.  The development of treatment and vaccination necessitates non-human primate models. In the nature, the transmission of the disease can occur through infected blood or secretion.  However, EBOV in medical facilities also transmit through accidental injection. Thus, monkey handlers in laboratory may face risks of exposing to EBOV during intramuscular injection of EBOV to monkey. This study aims to establish an animal experiment on monkey through conjunctival infection with the intention of reducing the risk of needle accidence.  In this study, Cynomolgus macaques in three challenging cohorts were anesthetized before being infected via the eyelid mucosa in low and high dosage.  Animals were monitored and blood specimens were collected to evaluate including hematologic and serum biochemical analysis, viral RNA and neutralizing antibody. In conclusion, conjunctive infection has the potential to induce lethality in infected monkeys in dose-dependent manner. A low dosage of viruses results in a minimal level of lethality among infected monkeys, whereas a high dosage uniformly induces lethality. Interestingly, viral RNA was detected in all infected monkeys, regardless of the clinical signs, but viral titre was only detected from infected animals with clinical signs of EBOV infection.
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