Captive cheetahs at risk from their own faeces

Breeding endangered cheetahs in captivity has been fraught with difficulties, not least the high death rates suffered from an illness with nasty similarities to mad cow disease.

Now a team led by pathobiologist Keiichi Higuchi of Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Matsumoto, Japan, has identified a likely way the disease, called AA amyloidosis, is transmitted – via cheetah faeces.

Go to New Scientist for the full report