研究人员警告说，从猴子跳到人类身上的能跨越种间屏障的病毒能够伤害人类和动物，而且人类应该采取行动来降低这种病毒传播的风险。华盛顿大学的研究人员将这篇特别报道发表在9月的American Journal of Primatology杂志上，并且成为该期杂志的封面故事。
这篇特别报道对印度尼西亚的一个猴庙的观光游客发生病毒传播的风险进行了评估，并且还包括一项有关一些限制猴子和人类接触的手段如何能减少物种间传播的研究。其他的一些研究人员描述感染猴子和猿类的人类病毒如何侵害动物群体。
研究人员Lisa Jones-Engel指出，病毒已经跨过物种屏障并同时影响人类和动物的健康，有可能情况比预期的还要坏。
研究人员相信导致艾滋病的HIV病毒最初是猿免疫缺陷病毒（SIV），并且在几十年前跳到了人类身上（非洲人将猴子作为食物，并被这种病毒感染）。。气体的病毒如流感病毒也能跨越种间屏障。研究人员估计，在每1000个参观猴庙的游客中就有大约6个人会感染猿泡沫病毒（SFV）。而这项研究向着量化与人类－猴子病毒传播有关的风险的第一步。
部分英文原文：
Temple Monkeys and Health Implications of Commensalism, Kathmandu, Nepal
The threat of zoonotic transmission of infectious agents at monkey temples highlights the necessity of investigating the prevalence of enzootic infectious agents in these primate populations. Biological samples were collected from 39 rhesus macaques at the Swoyambhu Temple and tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, Western blot, polymerase chain reaction, or combination of these tests for evidence of infection with rhesus cytomegalovirus (RhCMV), Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1 (CHV-1), simian virus 40 (SV40), simian retrovirus (SRV), simian T-cell lymphotropic virus (STLV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), and simian foamy virus (SFV). Antibody seroprevalence was 94.9% to RhCMV (37/39), 89.7% to SV40 (35/39), 64.1% to CHV-1 (25/39), and 97.4% to SFV (38/39). Humans who come into contact with macaques at Swoyambhu risk exposure to enzootic primateborne viruses. We discuss implications for public health and primate management strategies that would reduce contact between humans and primates.
Most pathogens that affect humans are thought to have originated in animals and subsequently evolved to successfully parasitize human populations . Proximity and physical contact between animals and humans provide the opportunity for infectious agents to pass between the groups. Whether a particular infectious agent can successfully make the cross-species jump depends in part on the new host environment . By virtue of their genetic, physiologic, and behavioral similarity to humans, nonhuman primates (hereafter referred to as primates) are particularly likely sources of emerging infectious agents with the capacity to infect humans, and primate-to-human cross-species transmission of infectious agents has become a focus of scientific inquiry. Because human-primate contact is common in Asia, this continent is a rich area in which to pursue this research. We examine the prevalence of selected enzootic primateborne viruses in a population of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) that lives in close proximity to humans.
