So how does diseases work exactly on hard difficulty?

[Wistala]

So I have Mandrills that at some point, one of them got Simian Hemorrhagic Fever, which then spread to the others. I managed to treat them all without death and for a a little bit none of them were sick, then suddenly one of them got it again, spread, managed to contain it and treat it. Everyone is healthy, then a little bit later it shows up again, this time I got it before it spread. But it doesn't make sense that is keeps popping up like that. The animals immune system are in the green (except 1) their habitat is clean, the animals are happy and get tier 3 food, research is completed as well. And its only the Mandrills that seems to get it.

Am I missing something here?

 

[Haunt]

I am not sure exactly how much realism Frontier put into their diseases, but based on real world examples I can tell you that what you are describing sounds eerily like situations experienced by real world colonies faced with SHV.

Basically what happens is that one non-local animal has the virus but in an inactive state and gets introduced to the colony by the well meaning zoo. Despite putting the animal into quarantine initially, due to the inactive state of the virus the animal somehow gets past the inspection and gets added to the colony.

Some random time later the inactive virus goes active and no one really knows the trigger that starts things. But the animal has had the virus inside it for so long that its immune system has built up a bit of an immunity to it so does not right away show symptoms. Being mixed in with the colony soon causes the infection to spread. No one realizes to check for the infection until the first native colony members start to show signs of infection. The staff do their best to cure the colony only to miss one or more animals that again had an inactive form of the virus inside them. Soon the entire troup again is visited by the disease. Sometimes these waves of the disease returning in a colony can keep happening for over a decade straight.

 

[Wistala]

I am not sure exactly how much realism Frontier put into their diseases, but based on real world examples I can tell you that what you are describing sounds eerily like situations experienced by real world colonies faced with SHV.

Basically what happens is that one non-local animal has the virus but in an inactive state and gets introduced to the colony by the well meaning zoo. Despite putting the animal into quarantine initially, due to the inactive state of the virus the animal somehow gets past the inspection and gets added to the colony.

Some random time later the inactive virus goes active and no one really knows the trigger that starts things. But the animal has had the virus inside it for so long that its immune system has built up a bit of an immunity to it so does not right away show symptoms. Being mixed in with the colony soon causes the infection to spread. No one realizes to check for the infection until the first native colony members start to show signs of infection. The staff do their best to cure the colony only to miss one or more animals that again had an inactive form of the virus inside them. Soon the entire troup again is visited by the disease. Sometimes these waves of the disease returning in a colony can keep happening for over a decade straight.

If we assume the game works the same way. So even tho they have had it and got "cured" for it, the virus can still be in the animal just dormant till it suddenly activates?

 

[Haunt]

Again, I have no way of knowing just how Frontier coded their diseases but that is more or less correct about the real SHVs.

No one is actually entirely sure whether the virus has a dormant state where it is different enough from the active state that our tests for the virus miss it causing the virus to be undetectable in its immature state, or even scarier whether the virus can some latch onto patient zero animal's own immune system and somehow trick it into hiding the hitchhikers or even worse still whether the virus once exposed into an animal basically leaves genetic coding which causes the host body to be tricked into cloning the former infected virus.

But, yes, animals that have been tested and shown to be clean have later shown symptoms of the disease despite remaining in solitary conditions with no chance of exposure. The longest running SHV infection in a colony that I am aware of lasted I believe 17 years and only ended then because that was when the last member of the troup passed, but there is another case currently ongoing that may break that record but it is not exactly advertised since these are the types of things that can ruin reputations. And as far as even the best experts can tell there is no improper handling causing the contagion.

So in summary either the virus somehow can cloak itself due to a radical change between its immature and mature states, or else once infected the animal's own body is somehow either hiding or even reforming the virus thereby causing a colony reinfection. The end result is that all of the tests will show clean animals but the virus keeps returning to the colony like an unwanted moocher relative.

 

[Wistala]

Again, I have no way of knowing just how Frontier coded their diseases but that is more or less correct about the real SHVs.

No one is actually entirely sure whether the virus has a dormant state where it is different enough from the active state that our tests for the virus miss it causing the virus to be undetectable in its immature state, or even scarier whether the virus can some latch onto patient zero animal's own immune system and somehow trick it into hiding the hitchhikers or even worse still whether the virus once exposed into an animal basically leaves genetic coding which causes the host body to be tricked into cloning the former infected virus.

But, yes, animals that have been tested and shown to be clean have later shown symptoms of the disease despite remaining in solitary conditions with no chance of exposure. The longest running SHV infection in a colony that I am aware of lasted I believe 17 years and only ended then because that was when the last member of the troup passed, but there is another case currently ongoing that may break that record but it is not exactly advertised since these are the types of things that can ruin reputations. And as far as even the best experts can tell there is no improper handling causing the contagion.

So in summary either the virus somehow can cloak itself due to a radical change between its immature and mature states, or else once infected the animal's own body is somehow either hiding or even reforming the virus thereby causing a colony reinfection. The end result is that all of the tests will show clean animals but the virus keeps returning to the colony like an unwanted moocher relative.

Whenever the game or not does it that way, I sure have learned something. So thank you

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Again, I have no way of knowing just how Frontier coded their diseases but that is more or less correct about the real SHVs.

No one is actually entirely sure whether the virus has a dormant state where it is different enough from the active state that our tests for the virus miss it causing the virus to be undetectable in its immature state, or even scarier whether the virus can some latch onto patient zero animal's own immune system and somehow trick it into hiding the hitchhikers or even worse still whether the virus once exposed into an animal basically leaves genetic coding which causes the host body to be tricked into cloning the former infected virus.

But, yes, animals that have been tested and shown to be clean have later shown symptoms of the disease despite remaining in solitary conditions with no chance of exposure. The longest running SHV infection in a colony that I am aware of lasted I believe 17 years and only ended then because that was when the last member of the troup passed, but there is another case currently ongoing that may break that record but it is not exactly advertised since these are the types of things that can ruin reputations. And as far as even the best experts can tell there is no improper handling causing the contagion.

So in summary either the virus somehow can cloak itself due to a radical change between its immature and mature states, or else once infected the animal's own body is somehow either hiding or even reforming the virus thereby causing a colony reinfection. The end result is that all of the tests will show clean animals but the virus keeps returning to the colony like an unwanted moocher relative.

Off topic but I would be very interested in reading further on this topic. I tried searching but my results seemed either irrelevant or behind a paywall. Any recommendations you have would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Haunt]

Zohan is your interest general or do you have at risk animals you are concerned about?

If it is general then I suggest getting hold of the papers of Binton, Di, and Vatter. Their research was good and included some solid references. They published a disease research article on the subject a few years back. If you cannot get a hold of their work let me know and I'll see if I can scrounge up a copy for you and send it.

If it is a specific concern that is another matter and would need to be taken to PMs as I would have to get permission to put you in contact with someone. Due to the issues that fear of outbreaks can cause it is not exactly something that gets talked about much or openly admitted to.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

Zohan is your interest general or do you have at risk animals you are concerned about?

If it is general then I suggest getting hold of the papers of Binton, Di, and Vatter. Their research was good and included some solid references. They published a disease research article on the subject a few years back. If you cannot get a hold of their work let me know and I'll see if I can scrounge up a copy for you and send it.

If it is a specific concern that is another matter and would need to be taken to PMs as I would have to get permission to put you in contact with someone. Due to the issues that fear of outbreaks can cause it is not exactly something that gets talked about much or openly admitted to.

Thank you, my friend! My interest is purely academic, I am not lucky enough to work with animals, but I find the way zoos deal with this stuff to be fascinating.

I will look into the study you mentioned, thanks!