Spring Break
Veterinary school tests birds for West Nile Virus
BLAINE NEY
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Danny Mead and David Stallknecht, University research scientists, work in the Wildlife Health Building, which has become a focal point in the Southeast for detection of the West Nile Virus (WNV).
A WNV case count for 2002 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed that 4,156 human infections were reported, and 284 people died because of infection.
CDC scientists report that by Oct. 6, there were more than 2,000 more cases of West Nile infection than through all of last year -- pushing the total to 6,292 cases and 133 deaths this year alone.
And according to Mead, "It is never going to go away."
Mead and Stallknecht are co-primary investigators for the Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in the surveillance of WNV.
The University became involved in 2000, a year after the virus was identified in New York -- the first case of West Nile in the United States.
"The state department contacted us because they know that we work with wildlife, and it was an obvious marriage between the Wildlife Disease Study and the Department of Human Resources," Mead said.
Now 15 states across the Southeast can send a specimen, usually a dead bird, to the University lab to be tested for WNV.
The role of birds in the life cycle of the virus was known before the disease came to the United States. The virus spreads through a combination of the migration of infected birds and the mosquitoes that feed on their blood.
According to Mead, the viral path leading to humans begins with the virus circulating in the blood of an infected bird. If a mosquito gets blood from the bird, it can transfer the virus to a human through its bite.
"It's kind of like, 'What came first, the chicken or the egg?'" Mead said, explaining why scientists are not sure where the viral path actually originates.
He did, however, say that at some point the birds and the virus may come into an equilibrium where it will no longer kill the birds.
Mead said this could be a sign that the virus is diminished in the birds, and therefore the human risk may be lower.
"We just don't know what is going to happen," he said. "There are too many questions, and nobody's got the answers."
For now, he said the birds are a good indicator of when and where the virus is active.
Once a dead bird is found and sent to the University lab, it is tested to see if the cause of death was WNV.
If scientists determine the bird has died from the virus, then the University notifies the state, and the public is advised on what precautions to take.
In the first year University scientists began surveillance for WNV, Mead said they received about 120 birds.
"At that point people were taking it easy, watching the news, seeing what was going on in the Northeast and knowing that the virus wasn't in Georgia yet," Mead said. "So nobody was really concerned."
In July 2001, the University lab identified the virus in South Georgia.
"Everything changed from that point on. We went from getting four to five birds -- maybe 10 on a busy week -- to getting between 70 and 100 birds a day," Mead said. "It was phenomenal."
Mead said that although the pace has slowed at the lab, "It has been an interesting year for us .... If you compare (results between Aug. 3 this year and last year) and the total number of birds that we received up to that time, we are about 300 ahead of where we were."
Stallknecht said he is pleased with the performance of the lab.
"We keep up the pace," Stallknecht said.
Mead and Stallknecht said students who work on independent projects are a great help to them.
Maureen Abbott, an undergraduate from Columbus, Ohio, has worked with WNV under Mead and Stallknecht for more than a year.
"It's real exciting because it's so new, and it's a hot topic," Abbott said. "I feel like I'm involved in something really important.
"(In) any job where you're working with a live virus, people automatically think the worst," she said. "(They say), 'Oh, my God. You are working with something that could kill you.' Surely it's a danger, but I feel that we have all the safety precautions we could have, and I'm not scared to work with it."
Mead said he also thinks the job is worth the risk.
"I love what I do," Mead said. "Absolutely love it."
