Comments on previous postings on this thread, from:
[1] Linn Haramis
[2] Michael J. Foster
[3] Dominick Ninivaggi, in response to Kevin McGowan
[1]
From: "LINN HARAMIS" <LHARAMIS@idph.state.il.us>
FYI
antibodies incidence in Illinois crows appears to be low, see
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no4/pdfs/03-0499.pdf>
[or <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol10no4/03-0499.htm>]
[ The dispatch Linn Haramis refers to was published in Emerging
Infectious Diseases in Apr 2004:
West Nile Virus and High Death Rate in American Crows
Sarah A. Yaremych,*Comments Richard E. Warner,* Phil C. Mankin,* Jeff
D. Brawn,* Arlo Raim,† and Robert Novak†
*University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA; and †Illinois Natural
History Survey, Champaign, Illinois, USA
Abstract: We document effects of WNV on American Crows. More than
two thirds of our crows died of WNV infection, peaking when the
proportion of infected mosquitoes at roosts was greatest. WNV antibody
prevalence in crows was low. Local ecologic effects can be dramatic as
WNV inhabits new areas.]
[2]
From: Michael J. Foster <mjfoster@mail.umes.edu>
I am very interested to see if there are any correlates between rising
temps and crow deaths too. Ginsberg in URI Pautuxet Wildlife R.C. has
indicated to me in previous conversation that it has been difficult in
the past for researchers to clearly find a link between mosquitoe
species activity and temperature. I am not sure of the literature on
this however.
Michael James Foster
Graduate Research/Teaching Assistant
Marine-Estuarine-Environmental Science
Environmental Molecular Biology/Biotechnology
University of Maryland Eastern Shore
Carver Hall, Room 1125
Princess Anne, MD 21853
Office: 410-651-6018 Fax: 410-651-7739
http://studentwebs.umes.edu/mjfoster/
[3]
From: "Ninivaggi, Dominick" <Dominick.Ninivaggi@co.suffolk.ny.us>
I suspect we're both right [referring to prior comments from himself
and Kevin McGowan], and WNV resistance among crows varies
geographically. Lisa Reed from Rutgers is reporting substantial
numbers of positive, live crows in New Jersey, so if that's not the
case in central NY it seems something interesting is going on. We had
a big dropoff in dead crow sightings and positive crows in 2004 on Long
Island. Hard to know if it was the relatively cool summer (night time
temps in the 50's in early August, no temperatures above 90) or if our
crows, after 6 seasons at least of WNV, are developing some resistance.
We also had a drop in mosquito positives, which would support the idea
we just had less WNV activity, but could that lower activity be due to
some change in the bird-virus interaction, or was it just temperature?
In terms of climate and WNV experience, Long Island is more like NJ
than central NY. 2005 promises to be interesting.
Dominick V. Ninivaggi \ ()
Superintendent \ \__ () /
Division of Vector Control \____\ ()___/
Suffolk County DPW \\()/
335 Yaphank Avenue ======OO08<----
Yaphank, NY 11980 ____//()\___
Voice:631-852-4270 / __/ () \
FAX: 631-852-4140 / / () \
/ ()
dominick.ninivaggi@co.suffolk.ny.us
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kevin McGowan [mailto:kjm2@cornell.edu]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 3:36 PM
> To: WESTNILEVIRUS-L@cornell.edu
> Subject: [WNV-L] Crows Die in Winter, New York State (3)
> I would take issue with the second statement [made by Dominick
> Ninivaggi]. We still are seeing no evidence of any resistance to WNV
> in crows in central New York. Of several hundred American Crows tested
> for WNV antibodies over the last five winters, only a couple of
> positives have been found each year, with no increase in occurrence
> over time. We just sent off this year's batch to be tested, but we're
> still pretty pessimistic about the appearance of resistance. When the
> mosquitoes are out, the crows seem to die.
>
> I will be very interested to know the whole story on these recent
> positives. I'll still bet that they either were bitten by emerging
> mosquitoes or picked the virus up by carrion feeding.
>
> Kevin
>
>
>> [1] Dominick Ninivaggi <Dominick.Ninivaggi@co.suffolk.ny.us>
>> It will be interesting to see if WNV was the cause of death. As the
>> report notes, there is now evidence that WNV is no longer nearly 100%
>> fatal for crows, as it was in the early years of WNV, so the birds
>> could be positive but something else killed them. Crow-to-crow
>> transmission of WNV is known in the lab, so that is possible. I
>> suspect we are seeing resistance in the crows, since the same strain
>> of virus (NY-99) continues to circulate. Evolution in action. Crows
>> may be losing their usefulness as sentinels for WNV.
>
>> *****************************************************
> Kevin J. McGowan
> Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology
> 159 Sapsucker Woods Road
> Ithaca, NY 14850
> 607/254-2432
> fax 607/254-2111
> kjm2@cornell.edu
> http://birds.cornell.edu/crows/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WESTNILEVIRUS-L is an email discussion group for communication
and discussion about West Nile Virus, particularly regarding policy,
risk reduction and public education issues. It is hosted at Cornell
University and moderated by Dr. Lois Levitan, Program Leader of
Cornell's Environmental Risk Analysis Program (ERAP).
Subscribers are encouraged to post to the group by sending
messages to <envrisk@cornell.edu>. Put "WNV Listserv" in
the subject line and send unformatted text, without attachments.
To subscribe (or unsubscribe), please send an email request with
your name and contact information to <envrisk@cornell.edu>.
To receive messages once a day in digest format, subscribers should
send an email to <listproc@cornell.edu> with message:
"set WESTNILEVIRUS-L mail digest-nomime".
Postings are archived at
<http://environmentalrisk.cornell.edu/WNV/WNV-LArchive>.
Received on Wed Feb 23 11:48:12 2005
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : June 29 2005 EDT