Virus isolated in Uganda

Zika virus is first isolated from a sentinel rhesus monkey placed in a cage on a tree platform in the Zika Forest near Lake Victoria, Uganda. The monkey, Rhesus 766, was part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s program for research on jungle yellow fever. Two days later, Rhesus 766, still febrile, was brought to the Foundation’s laboratory at Entebbe and its serum was inoculated into mice. After 10 days all mice that were inoculated intracerebrally were sick, and a filterable transmissible agent, later named Zika virus, was isolated from the mouse brains.