As regular CFZ-watchers will know, for some time Corinna has been doing a column for Animals & Men and a regular segment on On The Track... particularly about out-of-place birds and rare vagrants. There seem to be more and more bird stories from all over the world hitting the news these days so, to make room for them all - and to give them all equal and worthy coverage - she has set up this new blog to cover all things feathery and Fortean.

Monday 2 March 2015

California: Birds are ‘important hosts’ of Lyme disease bacteria: Study

Posted by Staff on March 1, 2015 

Birds are more important than previously recognized as hosts for Lyme disease-causing bacteria in California, according to a new study led by UC Berkeley researchers.

Golden-crowned sparrow
Image/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

The findings, published Wednesday, Feb. 25 in the journal PLOS ONE, shine a light on an important new reservoir in thewestern United States for the corkscrew-shaped bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, responsible for Lyme disease. Wood rats,western gray squirrels and other small mammals have been identified in previous studies as wildlife hosts of the Lyme disease spirochete bacterium in California, but fewer studies have looked at the role of birds as reservoirs.

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