National Wildlife Disease Program (NWDP)

• avian influenza
• feral swine
• West Nile virus

SPECIAL INTEREST

WDB collaborates with University of Alabama at Birmingham & Alabama Department of Public Health in West Nile virus research (2008)
A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researcher contacted WDB Lovell about West Nile Virus case data collected in Alabama from 2002-2007. WDB Lovell referred the scientist to the
Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) state public health veterinarian, who, in turn,
requested that WDB Lovell provide the data set to the researcher. WDB Lovell coordinated
mosquito-borne virus surveillance for eight years for the ADPH, but funding was cut in 2008, and
coordination was absorbed in-house. However, the ADPH still relies on WDB Lovell to
communicate about work done in those eight years. The researcher was hopeful of testing a new
23 model developed at NASA to determine if it could predict WNV cases in two Alabama counties.
WDB Lovell began compiling and editing the data so that it was not identifiable beyond county
level (at the request of ADPH). The data should be compiled by early August.

WDB Lovell was contacted by a different UAB researcher testing a method of using satellite
imagery to locate scrap tire dumps within Alabama. Scrap tire sites have been shown to be
common breeding sites for certain species of mosquitoes, though very few studies have shown that
these tire sites increase risk of transmission of mosquito-borne virus to humans. The scientist
requested information about a recently-published article relative to a survey of tire-breeding
mosquito species in Alabama. He wanted the GPS locations of the study sites in hopes of validating
his methodology of using satellites to locate them. The tire-breeding survey was conducted statewide
in Alabama by Auburn University researchers using ADPH funding, and was done while WDB
Lovell coordinated mosquito-borne virus surveillance for ADPH. WDB Lovell contacted the
author of the research and facilitated the exchange of those GPS coordinates.

Alabama assists with raccoon density index studies (2008)
WDB Lovell assisted with 2 raccoon density index studies in Washington County. One hundred cage traps were run for 15 days in order to validate 4 earlier density measurements collected in the summer and fall of 2007.

Contact:
Vacant