Zika Virus and livestock.

Dr. Carol Sutherland sent this to me so I am passing it along. Digging around on the CDC website---which was just updated today, so ‘news is poppin’….. Zika Virus originated in Africa and is named for the Zika Forest region in Uganda. The Zika virus infection was described and named in 1947. In Africa at that time---the virus was assumed to come from native animals---so it was termed ‘enzootic.’ What kind(s) of animals were considered original hosts---no idea. Now that it’s in the news in the New World, I haven’t found any references to it associated with any animals---wild or domestic---on this side of the planet. From what I gather, it wouldn’t make a lot of difference since there’s no treatment for the infection in humans and development of any vaccine is probably years away. For that matter, it’s still a hypothesis that Zika in pregnant women is responsible for microcephaly in their infants---but with the sheer numbers of babies in Brazil, Colombia and now a few in the U.S.----it sure looks plausible. BTW---The distribution maps for Aedes (now called Ochlerotatus---but who remembers that?) aegypti (‘yellow fever mosquito’) show it across a broad area of southern NM, angling towards the northeast. There are two locales in NM considered to have Aedes albopictus, the Asian tiger mosquito---Eddy Co. and probably the ABQ metro area. These are considered---right now---the likely candidates for being Zika vectors. But according to CDC---as of this morning---these vectors in the U.S. are most likely moving people-affecting viruses from one person to another; no animals have been considered as reservoirs or susceptible to these viruses. We’re safe for the time being……….