Hybrid Mosquito Helps West Nile Virus Spread
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From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Human infection by West Nile virus may be more common in North America than in Europe because of a hybrid mosquito that bites both birds and humans, carrying the virus from one to the other. European mosquito species tend to bite either birds or humans, but not both. Dina M. Fonseca of the Smithsonian Institution, lead author of the study in the journal Science, said 40% of the mosquito population genetically analyzed in the U.S. are hybrid.
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