Dead blackbird with Usutu virus discovered in NRW

07/13/2012

As authorities report, a blackbird from North Rhine-Westphalia has died from the Usutu virus, which can affect not only birds but also mammals and humans. This was announced by the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) in Hamburg on Friday. Last summer, the Usutu virus caused a mass extinction of blackbirds in southwestern Germany.

Renewed mass extinction of blackbirds by Usutu virus feared
In North Rhine-Westphalia, a blackbird was first detected in which the Usutu virus named after a river in Swaziland, Africa, was detected. Experts now fear a similar outbreak of the disease as last summer. At that time it came in the southwest of Germany to the mass dying of blackbirds. The Usutu viruses could now also cover other states, as Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit, a virologist at the BNI, explained. In Rhineland-Palatinate already six infected blackbirds were found.

While the virus often causes fatal infections in birds, it can also be severe in older and immunocompromised people. The infection is typically associated with fever, rashes and headaches. In the worst case, encephalitis may develop. (Ag)

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Picture: Jens Bredehorn