![](img023.GIF) |
The first thing to
be done is to identify the virus in hand, and this is often provided by
mosquito surveillance. If this is not done and there’s no sentinel
system, dead horses will likely be seen playing the sentinel role. But which
of several viruses killed them ? Could several viruses be present? Can the
number of potential hosts be much reduced by the proper vaccine campaign ?
Does Virus X favor a certain spectrum of hosts including birds? Are cases
clustered or scattered? What is the direction of the epidemic? What are the
winds like? How much water is available to mosquitoes? What month is it and
so on? If the equine is left as the sentinel, in a sense, financing
surveillance is solved, although without too much elegance. |