West Nile may have killed young bald eagles

[Staff]

West Nile may have killed young bald eagles
By Dana M. Nichols
Record Staff Writer
August 12, 2009 3:00 AM

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090812/A_NEWS/908120334
excerpt from above:

CAMPO SECO - West Nile virus may have been what killed two young bald eagles whose bodies were found in their nest near Pardee Reservoir on July 23.

As recently as last week, scientists at the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory at the University of California, Davis, said the decayed condition of the birds' bodies meant it might not be possible to determine a cause of death. But the very last test conducted came back positive this week for West Nile virus in the kidney and brain tissues of one of the birds, according to Leslie Woods, a veterinary pathologist at the laboratory.

Woods said that because of the deteriorated condition of the birds' bodies, she was unable to look for the lesions in tissues that would be another indicator of a West Nile virus infection.

[Equilibrium]

This sickens me. The West Nile virus is transmitted from mosquitoes that get the virus from infected birds and then transmit it to people and other birds. Starlings and house sparrows are carriers of WN but unlike crows, they never die from it... sooooo... they're out there flying around in the millions exacerbating the spread of WN and we do next to nothing about them.

[TheLorax]

Starlings and house sparrows are being referred to as amplifying hosts of west niles virus-
Migratory Birds and Spread of West Nile Virus in the Western Hemisphere

Pest Birds: Pigeons, Starlings, and Sparrows