WestNileVirus-L: Re: WESTNILEVIRUS-L digest 203

From: <EAmmerman_at_monroecounty.gov>
Date: February 10 2003

Below is a snippet from an article on neotropical birds and the WNV, by
David Duffy.

".....If this is the case, the impact of such a multispecies epidemic on
these species-rich and interaction-rich tropical communities will be
another dramatic and sad
example of the way in which unanticipated consequences of human activity
have harmed the wildland tropics."

The WNV, like many emerging infectious disease's, will exact a price that
many of us wish we did not have to pay. Time will reveal how extensive the
price will be and who will bear the cost . In Kentucky, horse owners are
scared. In Illinois, people are paying the price. Still, in other areas it
may be the birds that bear the brunt of this virus. Although I agree with
you that it is "dramatic and sad", I'm not sure what you are referring to
when you sight 'unanticipated consequences of human activity' as the cause.
Experts agree that WNV most likely arrived in the western hemisphere as
some "accidental tourist" aboard a ship or in the hold of an airplane. The
virus has always been a bird virus. People are an unfortunate sidebar to
this virus (the "dead end host"). Furthermore, if WNV has played a role in
the reduction of northern migrants, it seems very unlikely that anything
humans did or did not do had any impact on the spread of WNV once it had
arrived in the western hemisphere. Many experts were amazed at the speed
with which WNV spread across the country, but none have suggested that
there was anything that humans could have done to have changed the course
of events. Even today we are still unsure how the virus overwinters.
I do believe that the tropics would probably be better off without us
people but I'm not sure that such an assessment has any value.

Eric Ammerman
Senior Public Health Sanitarian
Monroe County Department of Health
585-274-6093
274-8000 (fax)

"West Nile Virus info"
 <WESTNILEVIRUS-L@corne To: "West Nile Virus info"
 ll.edu> <WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu>
 Sent by: cc:
 owner-WESTNILEVIRUS-L@ Subject: WESTNILEVIRUS-L digest 203
 cornell.edu

02/08/2003 12:01 AM

WESTNILEVIRUS-L Digest 203

Topics covered in this issue include:

1) Neotropical Birds and WVN?!
by David Duffy <dduffy@hawaii.edu>

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 08:25:44 -1000
From: David Duffy <dduffy@hawaii.edu>
Subject: Neotropical Birds and WVN?!
To: WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu
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a letter to SCIENCE Feb 7, 2003

Migratory Birds and the Spread of West Nile
We read with substantial apprehension the News Focus article on the spread
of West Nile Virus (WNV) across the United States and its concomitant
decimation of bird populations ("West Nile's surprisingly swift continental
sweep," M. Enserink, 20 Sept., p. 1988; and sidebar "Bird advocates fear
that West Nile virus could silence the spring," D. Malakoff, p. 1989). Many
of the survivors among these populations are very likely to spread WNV
throughout the Neotropics in this northern winter, if they have not already
done so during the last several winters. It is particularly ominous that
our
observations of scores of species of small northern migrants (e.g.,
warblers
and thrushes) this January in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in
northwestern Costa Rica (1) suggest that there is a precipituous decline in
their abundance compared with previous years. Parallel observations from
other neotropical continental areas would be opportune, as well as from the
Caribbean, as mentioned in the sidebar by Malakoff. This apparent decline
in
Costa Rica could well be due to fewer migrants arriving, virus-based death
in transit or on the wintering grounds, or even disproportionally harsh
predation by resident predators accustomed to preying on abundant migrants.
Our ongoing inventory of the internal parasites of these migrants and their
sympatric residents (2) hopefully will indicate whether WNV has arrived as
we expect and is spreading [however, there are no recorded cases of WNV in
Costa Rica at this time (3)], and whether the apparent severe reduction in
northern migrants is indeed a persistent phenomenon. If this is the case,
the impact of such a multispecies epidemic on these species-rich and
interaction-rich tropical communities will be another dramatic and sad
example of the way in which unanticipated consequences of human activity
have harmed the wildland tropics.
Douglas Causey,
Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University,
26 Oxford Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138,
USA.
Jeremiah Trimble,
Museum of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University,
26 Oxford Street,
Cambridge, MA 02138,
USA.
Winnie Hallwachs,
Department of Biology,
University of Pennsylvania,
415 South University Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19104,
USA.
Daniel Brooks,
Department of Zoology,
University of Toronto,
25 Harbord Street,
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5,
Canada.
Daniel Janzen*
Department of Biology,
University of Pennsylvania,
415 South University Avenue,
Philadelphia, PA 19104,
USA.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
E-mail: djanzen@sas.upenn.edu
References and Notes
See www.acguanacaste.ac.cr.
See http://brooksweb.zoo.utoronto.ca. R. Saenz, Costa Rican Minister of
Health, personal communication.

David Cameron Duffy
Professor of Botany and Unit Leader
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit (PCSU)
(PCSU is a cooperative projective of the
U.S. Geological Survey, National Park
Service and University of Hawaii)
3190 Maile Way St. John 410
Honolulu, HI 96822-2279
(808) 956-8218 phone
(808) 973-2936 fax / (808) 956-3923 (backup fax)
email address: dduffy@hawaii.edu

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<html>
 a letter to SCIENCE Feb 7, 2003 
 
Migratory Birds and the Spread of West Nile 
We read with substantial apprehension the News Focus article on the
spread 
of West Nile Virus (WNV) across the United States and its concomitant
 
decimation of bird populations ("West Nile's surprisingly swift
continental 
sweep," M. Enserink, 20 Sept., p. 1988; and sidebar "Bird
advocates fear 
that West Nile virus could silence the spring," D. Malakoff, p.
1989). Many 
of the survivors among these populations are very likely to spread WNV
 
throughout the Neotropics in this northern winter, if they have not
already 
done so during the last several winters. It is particularly ominous that
our 
observations of scores of species of small northern migrants (e.g.,
warblers 
and thrushes) this January in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in
 
northwestern Costa Rica (1) suggest that there is a precipituous decline
in 
their abundance compared with previous years. Parallel observations from
 
other neotropical continental areas would be opportune, as well as from
the 
Caribbean, as mentioned in the sidebar by Malakoff. This apparent decline
in 
Costa Rica could well be due to fewer migrants arriving, virus-based
death 
in transit or on the wintering grounds, or even disproportionally harsh
 
predation by resident predators accustomed to preying on abundant
migrants. 
Our ongoing inventory of the internal parasites of these migrants and
their 
sympatric residents (2) hopefully will indicate whether WNV has arrived
as 
we expect and is spreading [however, there are no recorded cases of WNV
in 
Costa Rica at this time (3)], and whether the apparent severe reduction
in 
northern migrants is indeed a persistent phenomenon. If this is the case,
 
the impact of such a multispecies epidemic on these species-rich and
 
interaction-rich tropical communities will be another dramatic and sad
 
example of the way in which unanticipated consequences of human activity
 
have harmed the wildland tropics. 
Douglas Causey, 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard University, 
26 Oxford Street, 
Cambridge, MA 02138, 
USA. 
Jeremiah Trimble, 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard University, 
26 Oxford Street, 
Cambridge, MA 02138, 
USA. 
Winnie Hallwachs, 
Department of Biology, 
University of Pennsylvania, 
415 South University Avenue, 
Philadelphia, PA 19104, 
USA. 
Daniel Brooks, 
Department of Zoology, 
University of Toronto, 
25 Harbord Street, 
Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, 
Canada. 
Daniel Janzen* 
Department of Biology, 
University of Pennsylvania, 
415 South University Avenue, 
Philadelphia, PA 19104, 
USA. 
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. 
E-mail: djanzen@sas.upenn.edu 
References and Notes 
See
<a href="http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr/" eudora="autourl">www.acguanacaste.ac.cr</a>.
 
See
<a href="http://brooksweb.zoo.utoronto.ca/" eudora="autourl">http://brooksweb.zoo.utoronto.ca</a>.
R. Saenz, Costa Rican Minister of Health, personal communication.
 
 
<x-sigsep></x-sigsep>
David Cameron Duffy 
Professor of Botany and Unit Leader 
Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit (PCSU) 
(PCSU is a cooperative projective of the 
U.S. Geological Survey, National Park 
Service and University of Hawaii) 
3190 Maile Way  St. John 410 
Honolulu, HI  96822-2279 
(808) 956-8218 phone 
(808) 973-2936  fax   / (808) 956-3923 (backup fax) 
email address: dduffy@hawaii.edu 
</html>

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End of WESTNILEVIRUS-L Digest 203
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Received on Mon Feb 10 16:09:24 2003