11-09-2018
The
outbreak of a dangerous African bird disease is killing blackbirds and other
bird species in the Czech Republic. The mosquito-carried Usutu virus has spread
to Europe from tropical and subtropical Africa and has been raising the bird
toll across the continent. I spoke to Petr Voříšek of the Czech Society for
Ornithology and I first asked him to tell me more about the disease.
“We don’t
know all the details about the disease. What we know is that it’s a virus. It’s
called the Usutu virus, it comes from Africa and it’s transmitted by
mosquitoes.
“The
virus is transmitted mostly to birds, but there are also a few cases of the
disease being transmitted to humans, but without the deadly consequences. So
the most victims, at least here in Europe, are birds, blackbirds in
particular.”
Is this
the first time you have detected the disease in the Czech Republic?
“The
first case of the disease was detected in the Czech Republic in 2011. This is
the second outbreak, but we can hardly say the disease has not been here
before.”
Could the
current outbreak of the disease be connected to the unusually hot and dry
summer?
“This is
difficult to say, since mosquitoes usually need some water to develop, on the
other hand I think it is almost without any doubt that the spread of this
disease and other diseases as well is linked to the climate change. So I can
hardly say that it is directly linked this hot and dry summer, but is almost
definitely linked to climate change.”
