Sunday, August 2, 2015

It's that time of year again: West Nile virus

Pennsylvania is reporting large number of WNV positive mosquitoes and a few positive in sentinel (chickens set out in various places to see if they get WNV). There was even a recent case in humans; a Venango county woman tested positive without hospitalization. The location was a surprise. Venango county in the northwest corner of the state not far from Allegheny National Forest. I would have expected it to come from the Philly area (they have in the past). 

WNV is more common in the suburbs where breeding sites are a plenty and the WNV super-spreader American Robin is also abundant. 

I suspect WNV did in this young robin below and I wish I had the lab material to detect it. Bird was healthy - at least the muscle was not receding from the sternum/keel.



UPDATE 8/3/2015  State released its weekly WNV report with 61 mosquitoes being positive. That's far more than I've seen... ever

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