Most diseases evolve with the animal and generally it is in the interest of the disease to keep from killing its host. Diseases such as influenza generally come from mutated strains in our domesticated animals. When a disease crosses species, there is a greater likelihood that it might actually kill the species which it was not evolving with. You will remember the "swine" flu perhaps. There is a truly great and Pulitzer Prize winning book by Jerrod Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel in part which he describes modern Europeans deadly suite of germs and how we acquired them. It has to do with our long history of domesticating animals. Some diseases are deadly to some animals and not very harmful to others. Aids and Ebola are good examples which were apparently spread by other primates to man. Whether or not bigfoot would be harmed by West Nile Virus is unknown but if bigfoot were exposed to humans, especially European humans, it seems likely to me that one of our diseases would probably be deadly to bigfoot. I have read of someone speculating on that possibility (perhaps Krantz or Green). Perhaps a disease such as small pox spread throughout the bigfoot population and drastically reduced their numbers. It might help explain some things
Posted on Aug 13, 2002, 7:26 AM from IP address 65.188.64.221