Filovirus reactive antibodies in wildlife hunting communities suggest ongoing zoonotic spillover in forested Guinea.

Filovirus reactive antibodies in Guinea's wildlife hunting communities indicate ongoing zoonotic spillover events involving multiple viruses, with 4.9% of individuals showing IgG binding.

• Why it matters: Understanding zoonotic spillover in these communities is crucial because deforestation and hunting increase human-wildlife contact, raising the risk of future outbreaks of deadly viruses like Ebola.
• What they did: Researchers screened 1,159 individuals from 43 villages in 2017 and 2023 using multiplex immunoassays, detecting species-specific IgG binding against six filoviruses and identifying neutralization activity, suggesting multiple spillover events.
• The result: The findings imply ongoing zoonotic transmission of filoviruses in Guinea's wildlife hunting communities and emphasize landscape features, such as forest fragmentation, as environmental factors influencing spillover risk.