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West Nile Virus (1 Viewer)

Steve

Member
Staff member
United Kingdom
WEST NILE VIRUS.

Can Any member give an account of what this is?
what affect its having etc....




steve
 
from Conserv@tion:

Every morning Jill Anderson puts out a handful of peanuts for the birds in her backyard in River Forest, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. "The crows usually are there and get the first dibs on the peanuts," she said. In early August, the crows disappeared. Then Anderson noticed the blue jays started looking sick, followed by house finches and goldfinches, chickadees, and most recently she found a dead mourning dove, all apparently victims of the West Nile virus. "I loved the crow family that lived in my yard," Anderson said. "I think they're dead." The virus, blamed for dozens of human deaths and more than 1,500 cases of illness, is also taking a toll on avian wildlife in a wide section of the country from Minnesota south to the Gulf of Mexico and from Nebraska east to Ohio, experts say.



also the following was posted on the ng (hoping it's ok to reproduce it) :

West Nile has killed the entire bird population in my local on the wooded
> Rouge River valley near Detroit, Michigan. Hawks, crows, bluejays,
> sparrows, woodpeckers, others all dead! The virus must be thick in the
> mosquito population here......

Sounds pretty bad huh
El Annie:-C
 
More on WNV

For your interest, here's a website (URL below) with lots of links to West Nile Virus information. I really don't think you would get it in England, as it is carried by mosquitoes which like hot, humid, swampy, wet places to breed - ie: just like the Gulf Coast area of the USA where I live. I haven't seen any dead crows or jays in my area, but we really do take care now to use insect repellent if we're going to be outdoors, specially as there are now daytime biting mossies which carry the disease.

There's a lot of information here, so keep scrolling down till you find something you want to know. See the section on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for worldwide distribution of WNV. There was an outbreak in France in 2000.

http://home.satx.rr.com/txento/wnv.htm
 
LOTS HERE

Hi Helen,
We have mosquitos here im afraid, even more of them in Scotland,(or are they midges?)
summer on say, the Isle of Skye can be a nightmare!!!!
If they had an outbreak in France it wont be long before it gets here.
sounds like a horrible disease for wildlife.
 
Mossies in the UK!

Hi Steve,
I'd forgotten about the mosquitoes in Scotland and other parts of the UK - I just know that when I lived there I was never bitten as frequently or as severely as I am here in the southern US. Don't know if midges are a type of mosquito - any entemologists out there?

Here's a Q&A overview for anyone wanting more information on WNv:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/qa/overview.htm

And here's a map showing the worldwide distribution of Japanese Encephalitis Serocomplex of the Family Flaviridae, 2000, which includes WNv:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/westnile/map.htm
 
latest on this subject.......

posted on ng today:

Posted on ng today:

Another interesting item in this week's New Scientist.

While this virus does infect humans, it does not often cause illness and
there are good prospects. However, it is much more of a problem for
birds and there are signifcant risks that large numbers could die,
including the Bald Eagle.

Interestingly, a relative of West Nile virus, Usutu virus, has turned up
in Vienna. First noticed in 2000, this summer it seems to be killing
large numbers of Blackbirds in the Vienna area. Other effected species
include Blue Tits and Sparrows. The infection possibly reached Europe
from Africa via Swallows. Immediate consequences for humans are small
but there are major concerns for birds.
 
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