30 July 06

Epidemic

West Nile virus is back in full swing here. For awhile it looked like we’d be spared a bad season. It was very wet early in the spring—lots of spots for the mosquitos—but in May it quickly dried out, and of course we’ve had our heat wave in July. But birds are dying now, and a few people are falling sick. In town they are planning to spray for mosquitos, which predictably for Davis is drawing protests from a small but ardent crowd that is constitutionally incapable of doing risk-benefit calculations. Around our house these past several days we’ve had two dead crows, and more sadly this evening, we saw a fledgling Swainson’s hawk in the field to the south who was lacking the energy to get airborne, though not for lack of trying.

Posted by at 11:14 PM in Nature and Place | Link |
  1. Pica, that’s really scary. Is it that bird flu? Shouldn’t you be careful about going too near birds??
    — Natalie    1. August 2006, 04:02    Link
  2. Actually, Natalie, it was Numenius, but I’ll answer…

    West Nile Virus is spread by mosquitoes. Its appearance in North America is recent so birds here have no immunity unless, like starlings or house sparrows, they were introduced from the Old World. Corvids seem particularly susceptible but so are raptors.

    We have bad mosquitoes here especially this year, so we’re told to avoid getting bitten. Easier said than done, no matter how many precautions you take. I’m sure at this point both Numenius and I would test positive; in 80% of humans there are no symptoms.

    Avian flu is also all around us, endemic in waterfowl. But this new strain is proving lethal to waterfowl and certainly poultry and, when it hits humans, to us as well.

    Long-winded way of saying yes, we should probably be careful…
    — Pica    1. August 2006, 06:15    Link
  3. Dang, that’s sad. I’m partticularly scared for the yellow-billed magpies, of course; it’s scary when a disease hits a species whose population is all in one range. And the local Swainson’ses might turn out to be genetically distinct, too—losses of more than just individuals, and the individuals are precious enough in their own right.

    By “close to birds,” I’m thinking you might want to specify “Don’t swim with a duck under each arm or sleep with the chickens” rather than “Don’t go out in the woods where the robins nest.” Just by the way. I think the people who’ve got avian flu have mostly been those who work closely with live poultry flocks no?

    Damn, I’ve always wanted to swim with a duck under each arm too.
    — Ron Sullivan    1. August 2006, 09:32    Link

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