- Officials are chasing a moving target as the progression
of West Nile Virus (WNV) penetrates farther west.
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- The encephalitis strain, which first appeared in the
United States in 1999, has spread to 15 states plus the District of
Columbia.
In the past two years, WNV has spread along the Atlantic coast and has
been detected in many birds, horses and at least nine humans from New
England
to Florida.
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- "The rest of the continental U.S. will be at risk
if the virus expands to the Caribbean and Central and South America, which
is a likely event," says Robert McLean, DVM, director of the U.S.
Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center.
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- "The worst does not appear to be over if the virus
expands to southern locations, where it could be transmitted throughout
the year," adds McLean, who spoke on the virus at the recently
concluded
AVMA annual convention.
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- Because WNV arrived on the scene earlier than in previous
summers, government agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and
the U.S. Geological Survey are stressing the importance of state
surveillance
programs.
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- Ohio and at least 17 other state health departments send
birds to a U.S. Geological Survey laboratory in Madison, Wis. The federal
agency has offered to analyze tissue samples for free.
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- In the Lab
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- Researchers at North Carolina State University (NCSU)
and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have teamed with the University
of Alabama and Rutgers University to study and identify specific types
of mosquitoes most likely to transmit the West Nile virus.
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- Dr. Charles Apperson, entomology professor and lead WNV
researcher at NCSU, says identifying the WNV-carrying mosquitoes will allow
officials to target specific populations.
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- "The mosquito that transmits the virus to humans
and horses is still not known for certain. If we can knock down those
mosquitoes
early in the season, maybe we won't get virus amplification or transmission
going on."
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- Among the mosquito species suspected of being a culprit
of transmission of WNV is the Culex mosquito, which hibernates in winter
and can carry the virus into the next season.
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- Read the feature by Senior Associate Editor Stephanie
Davis in the September issue of DVM Newsmagazine.
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- http://www.dvmnewsmagazine.com/news/01091newsall.asp#westnile
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