Hi folks, Just an intersting note on some recent results of a study on West Nile Virus. As for most of science, their data is great, but they ususally miss the point:
A masters student at U of Illinois was studying crows during the WNV season by radiotracking them. By the end of the season HALF of them had died from WNV - indeed an incredibly low survivial rate (abstract below). Question: Do radio beacons on your body make you more susceptible to viruses? I'd say it looks that way...hmmm. Of course they didn't consider that possibility. Cheers, Chris Abstract: The effects of West Nile Virus (WNV) on naïve host populations of North American wild birds are unknown, but potentially significant. We monitored survival of American Crows in east-central Illinois from February October 2002, at the leading edge of the 2002 WNV outbreak in North America. Nearly half of our radio-marked crows were recovered dead and confirmed to have WNV during the active transmission season; this mortality translates into an unusually low survivorship for this species. The rate of mortality was correlated with the onset and prevalence of the disease in local mosquitoes that were sampled near crow roosts. This study is the first report of a direct link between the occurrence of WNV in vectors and high mortality in a population of North American avifauna. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://tax.yahoo.com
