I was recently wondering about the need to
continually vaccinate for WNV. Since the mosquitos are potentially now biting us
with the virus, wouldn't we get a natural immunity to the disease? Is that
what's happened in Egypt? Or are horses & people still facing a big risk in
Egypt from WNV? Also, I haven't heard of any WNV deaths in the US in
geographical areas that it is not newly arrived in. Is it just not publicized
because it's not news anymore in those areas, or are there no deaths? Just
curious...
BTW, all the hunters I know are fully aware of the
spread of CWD. At least where I live, we are so over-populated with deer, we
hope for some natural event to keep their numbers down.
Kathy
Grass
Valley
Maryanne wrote:
If I were to test a majority of my neighbours here, we would find
positive scores for WNV. Most of us had it and never knew. Likewise,
most of our horses have had it as well, but no one ever knew. The best
thing you can do is to keep your immune system healthy: eat properly,
rest, avoid stress (yeah, right, lady!!! <G>), and so on. Back
in the 40's the US military determined that a vaccine for WNV would be easy
to do, but it wasn't economically viable because at that point the only
people who had it were too poor to defray the development and sales
costs. So no one ever bothered....Not until millions of horse owners
became concerned in the US. That's why there is an equine vaccine
(which we don't use, BTW) but no human vaccine.
Interesting that
CWD hasn't gotten ANY press time.....but then wild deer don't have owners to
vaccinate them.
