amazing the lengths gone to preserve plausible deniability for monsanto...,

guardian |  Mukwaya says he was astonished to hear of what was in Uganda a pretty harmless disease evolving into a potential global monster almost overnight on another continent. “I was very surprised by what has happened in Brazil,” he said. “Here it causes only a mild fever. I did not expect it to be that dangerous. It would be extraordinary if it really could spread from mosquito to human to human.”

He said had been bitten several times by mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus but, like most Ugandans, had no symptoms. “In Brazil,” he said, “the mosquito that can spread Zika is Aedes aegypti formosus. In Uganda, it is Aedes africanus. Both carry the same viruses, including dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya.

“What do we know about Aedes africanus? It bites mostly at altitudes of 18 to 24 metres, it lays 300 eggs at a time, it likes a temperature of 26C-27C, it prefers forest to open land, and, like other mosquitoes, it is attracted to alcohol. How the virus was transmitted to Latin America, and how it might develop or mutate, is just not known.”

Nor have there been any reported cases of birth defects in Uganda. “We do haveaegypti [mosquitoes] here, but I think we are protected. It does not regularly feed on man here, but on small animals like rodents, and cats and dogs. I believe we are safe. The mosquito carries both yellow fever and Zika, but it normally never bites humans and when it does it leads only to a short mild fever that many people do not even notice.”

Zika infection may be unknown in Uganda but the forest is a reservoir of disease. Despite this, it attracts its share of tourists and was once visited by the US president Jimmy Carter, who came to spot birds such as the rare crested crane. In the 65 years since the tower was built, UVRI researchers have isolated hundreds of arboviruses – diseases spread by insects and ticks.

“Most of them are potentially deadly,” says Mukwaya, who helped isolate the yellow fever virus in the 1970s and has had a mosquito sub-species named after him. “We do not know what else is in there. If you want to study little-known flora and fauna, you come to Uganda.”