Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/venomous-snakes-harbor-deadly-brain-swelling-virus-210958870.html
Venomous Snakes Harbor Deadly Brain-Swelling Virus
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com ? 5 hrs ago
Scientists had wondered how a mosquito-spread virus that causes the deadly brain-swelling disease Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) ? the one responsible for two deaths in Vermont this month ? survives in eastern North America during the winter. Now, they think they know the virus's keeper: snakes.
Previous work has implicated these reptiles, and the most recent study has found not only antibodies against the virus, but also genetic material from the virus itself in two species of venomous snakes living in Alabama...
Venomous Snakes Harbor Deadly Brain-Swelling Virus
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience Contributor | LiveScience.com ? 5 hrs ago
Scientists had wondered how a mosquito-spread virus that causes the deadly brain-swelling disease Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) ? the one responsible for two deaths in Vermont this month ? survives in eastern North America during the winter. Now, they think they know the virus's keeper: snakes.
Previous work has implicated these reptiles, and the most recent study has found not only antibodies against the virus, but also genetic material from the virus itself in two species of venomous snakes living in Alabama...