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Article: Experts Find Accomplice Of Nile Virus; Sparrows Are Incubators, But Puzzle Still Incomplete
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- October 22, 2000
- Author:
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Copyright informationThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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The virus could be seen in the lab. The mosquitoes that
transmitted it turned up in traps. And the carcasses of the crows
that were its chief victims were strewed across the landscape from
Vermont to North Carolina.
But as West Nile virus swirled out of New York this year, leaving
behind a trail of dying wildlife and anxious humans, scientists
suspected that something else was helping it spread.
Something that served as a "reservoir host," where the virus could
multiply to enormous levels. Something that wasn't necessarily killed
by the virus, as crows were. Something that, like a viral gas tank,
helped refuel the mosquitoes transmitting the disease.
One culprit, new research suggests, may ...
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