I heard that on the news last night. I saw a sick catbird in my yard yesterday I don't know what the symptons are. This is a little off topic but I heard also on the news that we are the state with the most lyme disease cases in the country . Sarah

Robins!!! Nooooooooo!!!!!!

Drat. I have lots of robins frequenting my yard.

Robins, eh? Maybe that explains why I haven't seen a heckuva lot of them lately- in fact I saw more in winter than I do now. And NO babies either! Only in PA or does that stat cover a wider area?

We have more robins than ever here in my PA yard this year.

Question: The way that bulldinkie phrased it, the mosquitos had robin blood in them, meaning they were feeding often on robins.

However, that does not necessarily mean that the robins are carrying West Nile, given that the disease organism survives better in some birds than others. They would need to test the robins' blood for West Nile to actually state that the robins are carrying the disease.

Is there a link anywhere to the actual research? I'd be interested in reading it to clear this up.

Did a search & found this link...
Robin, not Crow may be West Nile culprit

Bummer..

jllmcm I've noticed alot of robins in my yard too. But I always do. as well as catbirds and housefinches and afternoon starlings. But the largest increase of all has been cowbirds I wonder who raised them might it have been mourning doves they walk alot like them their heads bobble. a little off topic but there was an article in todays paper about

Here is a link that might be useful: west nile lab

Ok, guys, don't panic yet. Just like I said in my first post, all they know so far is that mosquitos like to feed on robins. But they don't know if West Nile survives well in robins. Some birds make effective carriers and some don't. Even though the mosquitos IN THE TEST AREA didn't feed much on crows, crows are an effective carrier of the virus and likely passed it on each time the mosquitos fed. If robins are not an effective carrier, it doesn't matter how often the mosquitos snacked on them. It's also important to remember that this was a limited geographic area that was tested and I doubt that all mosquitos are going to have the same preferences - they could also vary with time of year, etc.

So anyway, until they actually test the robins' blood, they don't actually know if the robins harbor the virus. Yet another example of a media scare before all the data are in!

Even if the story is true, it doesn't mean that we should regard robins as a threat to our health. Given that West Nile virus has been around for a few years now, it may very well be that the robins we are seeing today have developed an immune response to the virus, and are neither sick nor able to infect other birds.

I work in this field and one thing the article doesn't mention is what type of mosquitoes they were testing. There are certain species that feed on birds and certain species that feed on humans but there are only certain ones that feed on both. In Virginia, we see mostly the Culex sp as the main West Nile carriers. They are bird and human biters and have a tendency to enter homes in the evening, thus making them an important carrier. Aedes (aisian tiger mosquito) is a prolific daytime human biter, but does not test positive here very often. This is a VERY complex issue and definately deserves more study. I would not worry about your robins too much until more info comes out about infection rates and spread.

TBT

The link I posted yesterday about this lab in Chester county was in the Philadephia Inquirrer now they know very little about this disease But they did notice it's on the decline in New Jersey and Pennsylvania here's the article not a word about robins.Sarah

Posted on Mon, Aug. 01, 2005

A
new lab is dedicated to disease on the decline
Pa. scientists take a closer look at West Nile virus.
By Dawn Fallik
Inquirer Staff Writer

At Pennsylvania's new West Nile virus lab, they unpacked the microscopes first.

The team of environmental biologists, entomologists, and summer interns moved into the new digs in Harrisburg in June, just as the virus season began to hit.

Almost two months later, there are still a few unpacked boxes waiting in the conference room, but there's no time to dig through them. The mosquitoes have started arriving.

They come in coolers packed with dry ice - thousands of mosquitoes in jars - red caps for adults, green for larvae. They come from the counties, where officials hope to get a head's up on any impending outbreaks.

So far, so good.

"There's only been one human case, in York County," and five positive mosquito pools, said Andy Kyle, the head of vector management for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

It's only been six years since West Nile virus first appeared in New York City, and scientists have not figured out what to expect from the disease.

In New Jersey, there were 34 human cases in 2003, but last year only one. As of last week, eight mosquito pools tested positive, including one in Atlantic and one in Burlington County, but no human cases.

In Pennsylvania, there were 237 human cases two years ago, the highest in the five years since the virus hit Pennsylvania. Last year there were 15.

So why have a West Nile virus program when so few people are being infected with the disease? Because who knows when and if it will return, said Kyle.

"We don't know if what we're doing as far as mosquito control is the reason it hasn't come back," he said.

The $7 million Pennsylvania budget goes to the counties for larvacide, equipment and personnel, Kyle said. In New Jersey, the counties have their own budgets, which total about $12 million, including the state's $1.5 million.

Starting in June, the counties start sending in vials of mosquitoes, barcoded with date, collector and site information. (STP, which stands for sewage treatment plant, for example.)

In Pennsylvania, each county sends about 80 bottles with one to 10,000 mosquitoes a month. The lab scans in the vials, much like bread at the grocery store. Then each is dumped onto a "cold table," literally a frozen slab, and separated by tweezer by species.

"You've got to keep the mosquitoes frozen because otherwise the virus starts to disintegrate," said Mike Hutchinson, lab manager.

There are more than 50 different kinds of mosquito in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but only certain kinds carry West Nile. So only those host bugs - particularly the Culex species - get sent to the state Department of Health in Lionville, Chester County, for testing. The DEP handles the overflow.

So far, more than 5,000 samples have been shipped to the health department and tested this summer alone. Last summer, more than 21,000 pools were tested in Pennsylvania.

Officials say the season has just begun, and they're reluctant to say what August and September will bring.

"It's really too early to say there's anything like a pattern," said Bob Kent, head of mosquito control coordination for the Department of Environmental Protection in New Jersey. "Is it down because of the weather? Is there resistance developing? Is it because of mosquito control or that people are more aware of it?

"I think it's all of those things, but it remains to be seen."

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