KU researchers discover West Nile virus in the Dominican Republic

LAWRENCE -- A team of ornithologists from the University of Kansas recently discovered the West Nile virus in bird populations in the Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic, the first confirmed cases of the virus in the Caribbean.

The research team, led by Mark B. Robbins, Oliver Komar and A. Townsend Peterson of the University of Kansas Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center and by public health authorities in the Dominican Republic, announced today that five blood samples from birds collected in November contained antibodies for the virus. The laboratory analyses were conducted by collaborators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colo., and Colorado State University. The presence of the antibodies in samples from a remote area on the north coast of the Dominican Republic indicates local transmission of the virus.

According to Robbins, migratory birds long have been suspected of transporting the virus over long distances. Birds are the principal hosts for the virus, and mosquitoes can pass the virus from bird to bird and occasionally to mammals, such as horses and humans. The recent discovery of the virus in the Dominican Republic indicates that migratory birds may have carried the virus from the eastern United States, where a major West Nile virus outbreak has been going on for the past four years, to the north coast of Hispaniola, the Caribbean island that contains the Dominican Republic and Haiti. However, the virus antibodies were detected in resident birds, not migratory birds.

Health authorities in Dominican Republic are monitoring for cases of West Nile fever, but to date none has been confirmed.

Robbins said that one of the negative effects of West Nile virus in the Dominican Republic is its potential impact on endangered bird species. Five endangered bird species live exclusively on the island of Hispaniola, and about 40 others live exclusively on other Caribbean islands. One of the rarest hawks in the world, Ridgway's Hawk, whose population may number in the low hundreds, lives only in the area where West Nile virus was discovered.

The research was part of a study supported by the National Science Foundation and carried out under a collaborative agreement for virus monitoring among KU, the Dominican Republic's National Center for Tropical Disease Control, Cornell University, and the Wildlife and Biodiversity Office and the National Zoological Park of the Environment and Natural Resources Secretariat in the Dominican Republic.

For more information, contact:

 • at the University of Kansas: Brad Kemp, (785) 864-2344; Mark Robbins, (785) 864-3657, mrobbins@ku.edu; or Oliver Komar, (785) 864-4065, okomar@ku.edu
 • at the Centers for Disease Control: Duane J. Gubler, (970) 221-6428, dgubler@cdc.gov, or Nicholas Komar, (970)567-4970, nck6@cdc.gov
 • at Colorado State University: Barry Beaty, (970) 491-2988
 • at the Dominican Republic's National Center for Tropical Disease Control: Guillermo Gonzálvez, (809) 307- 6555, malaria@centennialrd.net
 • at Cornell University: Eloy Rodríguez, (607) 254-2956