As was previously posted, West Nile Virus has recently been detected in
pools (samples) of Aedes japonicus mosquitoes in several locations in NYS.
This species was first detected in the US by a Suffolk County entomologist
about two years ago and is now being found "almost anywhere anyone looks in
the Northeast, primarily in tires, bird baths and artificial
containers"--to paraphrase one of the medical entomologists who is doing a
lot of looking. There are more questions about A.j. (e.g., its flight
range, full habitat description, biting preferences, etc.) than firm
answers. Because it is a recent immigrant from Asia, not much is written
about it in the North American literature.
Please contact me (or post to the listserv) if you have information,
pointers to articles, etc. about Aedes japonicus. Info on its life cycle,
ecology, disease transmission competency, etc. will be helpful in
developing educational materials and strategies to reduce risk from WNV.
LCL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lois Levitan, PhD Program Leader
Environmental Risk Analysis Program
Center for the Environment
213 Rice Hall, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York USA 14853
Phone: (607) 255-4765 Fax: (607) 255-0238
Email: LCL3@cornell.edu
Program Email: envrisk@cornell.edu
http://www.cfe.cornell.edu/risk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Received on Thu Jul 27 14:18:02 2000
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