Scientists have detected Marburg virus in fruit bats in Sierra Leone, marking the first time the deadly virus has been found in West Africa. Eleven Egyptian rousette fruit bats tested positive for active Marburg virus infection. Research teams caught the bats separately in three health districts.

Predicting the emergence of highly pathogenic viruses in animals and preventing them from spilling over to humans is the goal of a multi-million-dollar cooperative agreement from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) with collaborating researchers at the University of California, Davis; the University of Idaho; and Plymouth University in England.