West Nile virus (Photo credit: AJC1)
West-Nile virus provides an interesting, observed, epidemiological model for infectious disease. This is because, since it’s incursion into the Northern Hemisphere, it has rapidly spread across North America. This article, by Chen et al describes statistical models constructed to predict West-Nile virus infection rates in female Culex Tarsalis Coquillett mosquitoes in the Canadian Prairies. Associations between weather variables, vector abundance and West-Nile virus infection are evaluated. Predictive models, such as this, are critical tools for public health and wildlife management in a future where climate change is very much a reality. Full citation and abstract can be found here.
The Microbial Greenhouse 
Birds carry West Nile virus. It was almost certainly a bird that brought the virus to New York in the summer of 1999, but no one knows for sure exactly how it happened. The bird may have been ill, or it may have been relatively healthy: some birds die from the infection while others are unaffected. In any case the bird was bitten by a mosquito while the virus was circulating in its bloodstream..
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