Arboreal Forest Research Articles

Survey of live forest animals for protective antibodies against yellow fever in Panama, R.P.

In November and December of 1948 a small outbreak of jungle yellow fever occurred near the town of Pacora in the Province of Panama, R. P. (Herrera et al. 1949; Courtney 1950). These cases represented the first to be identified here since 1907. In order to provide information concerning the vertebrate hosts of the disease in this area, a survey of live forest mammals for protective antibodies was initiated. Surveys of this kind have been conducted in Africa by Haddow et al. (1947), in Colombia by Bugher and coworkers (1944) and in Brazil by Laemmert et al. (1946) and Kumm and Laemmert (1950), but had not previously been undertaken in Panama. Later Clark (1950 and 1952) with the cooperation of the Yellow Fever Service, began a study of the immune status of shot arboreal forest animals in representative sections of the Republic.