Brown-Headed Cowbird & Blackbirds Immune Responses to West Nile Viruses and other Mosquito-Borne En

by Keith Moore

Submitted : Fall 2012

West Nile virus is disease spread by mosquitoes. The symptoms go from mild to severe. The West Nile Virus was identified in 1937 in Uganda. It was also first discovered in U.S. in 1999 in New York. The virus since then has spread all across the U.S. The West Nile Virus is known as the flavivirus (family of arboviruses carried by arthropods). According to researchers the West Nile virus is spread when a mosquito bites an infected bird and then bites a human. Mosquitoes carry the highest amount of the virus in the early fall between August and September making it these months the highest rates of infection. The colder the weather is the less likely of infection of the West Nile virus, because the mosquitoes die off in the cold weather. The purpose of my project is to analyzing the immune responses between Blackbirds Species and Brown-Headed Cowbird species and how the rate of The West Nile Virus is spread.

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