A study just released from John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health states that it was probably mosquitoes and not birds who spread West Nile virus.
This is the first study to study the role of mosquitoes in the spread of West Nile across the United States.
West Nile was first detected in 1999 in New York and between 2001 to 2004 it spread rapidly across the Mississippi River & into the Great Lakes Plain. Although bird do carry diseases and they were the suspected culprits of the spread of West Nile. The rapid spread of West Nile did not follow migratory routes of birds. Senior author Jason Rasgon, assistant professor in the Bloomberg School's Malaria Research Institute and W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology stated:
"When you see such rapid movement, one of the main questions we ask is, What are the factors that mediated this jump? Our study shows mosquitoes are a likely candidate."
They analyzed DNA from mosquitoes collected from 20 sites across the western US and genetic analysis detected 3 distinct clusters of C. tarsalis populations and there was extensive gene flow between these populations, which indicated widespread movement by the mosquitoes. This gene flow was limited in certain regions, such as the Arizona Sonoran desert, the eastern Rocky Mountains and the High Plains plateau, all of which appear to have blocked mosquito movement.
Rasgon added: "People have this idea that mosquitoes don't move very far. For certain mosquitoes, that is true. But the range of this particular mosquito is as great as the range of the birds that were originally thought to move the virus.
Good, I am glad, now people will leave the crows alone. ACQ
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