New York state wildlife experts studying the impact of themosquito-borne West Nile virus have found some unexpected results. Asthe Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Amy Cavalier reports, the findingspoint to a need for better monitoring of wildlife death patterns:
Transcript
New York state wildlife experts studying the impact of the mosquito-borne, West Nile
virus have found some unexpected results. As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Amy
Cavalier reports, the findings point to a need for better monitoring of wildlife death
patterns.
Ward Stone is the lead wildlife pathologist for New York’s
Department of Environmental Conservation. He studied more than four
thousand birds and other animals turned into his lab during the height of
this year’s West Nile outbreak. Stone found more cases of wildlife being killed by
disease and pesticides than from the West Nile virus.
“We’re also watching for any kind of new mortality beyond West Nile, because if we can diagnose those early enough we may be able to take action to stop it from becoming established in the country and that would be the best thing of all.”
Amongst stone’s findings were a case of botulism affecting Lake
Erie birds and a disease killing mourning doves. For the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium, I’m Amy Cavalier.