Until now, there was only one known strain of the so-called Zaire species of Ebola, the most brutal member of the Ebola viral family. It goes by the acronym of ZEBOV.

ZEBOV accounts for nearly nine-tenths of all deaths from haemorrhagic fever since Ebola was discovered in 1976 and was notably to blame for a six-week outbreak last September and October in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Investigators at France's Institute for Development Research (IRD) said that a probe into an outbreak of Ebola in Gabon and the Republic of Congo had thrown up a new variation of ZEBOV.

Its genome differs from the known lineage of ZEBOV by between two and three percent, and the change can only be explained by recombination, a process in which two viruses exchange genetic material.

Mutation of this kind is well known in the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) which causes AIDS.

But, the researchers said, it is "much more rare" for recombination to occur among Filoviridiae viruses, the clan to which the four categories of haemorrhagic viruses belong.

Ebola is deadly to gorillas and chimpanzees as well as to humans.

 Source : Breitbart.com