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Thanks for this great link! My husband is hearing
the "news bulletins" on the radio several times a day. This map and the info
posted earlier about these being ads has helped calm him down a little. I still
have a lot of reading to do, though to learn more about this.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 11:03
AM
Subject: [RC] WNV Vaccine--was--Pigeon
Disease!
Hi Truman:
You could be right. We all, of
course, hope that you are not.
I know that it's the birds who
spread the disease over distance, that's why they're checking dead birds for
infection. In fact here's a current map that illustrates where infected
birds have been found to date.
Find it here:
http://cindi.usgs.gov/hazard/event/west_nile/usa_avian_jun_17.html
There
are, of course, many many bird migratory patterns that are
north/south.
Florida--the entire eastern seaboard really--- was just a
giant lab petri dish waiting to happen. You have all those different
species of NE birds flying south for the winter right over Florida or in some
cases wintering in Florida and all those thirsty mosquitos all over Florida
lying in wait.
California's conditions are quite different (we just
don't have as many skeeters as you guys do), but you're right we are most
likely going to see some cases. As many as you? We hope not.
Are there really many birds who migrate East to West over as vast
distances as North/South migrations???
I'd love to know more about
this. What birds from where to where? Do you know? Just to
help us over here in So. Cal judge the risk.
I do know that California has
a very active program to check dead birds for WNV.
I don't want to medicate
my horse needlessly, but I don't want to get caught with my pants around my
ankles either.
Thanks, Truman.
Kath
Truman
said:
The reason they are giving for it
moving so fast has more to do with bird migration than mosquito population.
You do need misquitos to vector it but it is the birds that carry it. It is
carried by birds and the reason it got here so fast is FL is on the east coast
flyway for bird migration. There is also a big migration path birds follow
over CA so I would expect it could happen there as easy as it happened here.
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