Zika made its first appearance back in 1947 when a rhesus monkey was placed in a cage in the middle of the Zika Forest in Uganda by Rockefeller Foundation researchers to investigate the possible cause of yellow fever. While trying to find out more about yellow fever the scientists made another discovery: Rhesus 766 became known as the first carrier of the Zika virus, ultimately this rhesus monkey was subject zero.
Zika is a flavivirus, most in this family are carried by arthropods such as ticks and mosquitoes. Zika is a sexually transmitted virus, and is marketed by two companies: American Type Culture Collection and the UK based LGC Standards; as a commodity the virus was purchased online from the ATCC-LGC partnership by The Rockefeller Foundation.
