Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link
Volume 7, Number 4—August 2001
THEME ISSUE
West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus

Dead Bird Surveillance as an Early Warning System for West Nile Virus

Millicent Eidson*Comments to Author , Laura Kramer*, Ward Stone†, Yoichiro Hagiwara*, Kate Schmit*, and The New York State West Nile Virus Avian Surveillance Team
Author affiliations: *New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, USA; †New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Delmar, New York, USA

Main Article

Table

Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of pathology resultsa for West Nile virus (WN virus), New York State, 2000, before and after onset of first human case on July 20

No. pos. on WN virus testing
No. neg. on WN virus testing
Species No. pos. on necropsy (%)b No. neg. on necropsy No. pos. on necropsy No. neg. on necropsy (%)c
Jan 1 - Jul 19
American Crowd 29 (51.8) 27 34 551 (94.2)
Blue Jay 7 (25) 21 37 101 (73.2)
Fish Crow 0 (--) 2 1 18 (94.7)
American Robin 0 (--) 0 5 18 (78.3)
House Sparrow 0 (--) 1 2 35 (94.6)
Other species 2 (25) 6 19 186 (90.7)
Totale 38 (40) 57 98 909 (90.3)
(PPV=27.9%)  (NPV=85.3%)
Jul 20 - Dec 31
American Crowd 624 (79.0) 166 303 269 (47.0)
Blue Jay 76 (61.3) 48 124 126 (50.4)
Fish Crow 16 (84.2) 3 10 3 (23.1)
American Robin 7 (43.8) 9 32 16 (33.3)
House Sparrow 3 (18.8) 13 11 32 (74.4)
Other species 68 (33.5) 135 166 614 (78.7)
Totale 794 (68.0) 374 646 1,060 (62.1)

(PPV=55.1%)


(NPV=73.9%)
Total (all year) 832 (65.8%) 431 744 1,969 (72.6%)

aGross postmortem signs considered indicative of possible WN virus infection included one or more of the following: emaciation, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, cardiac or pericardial lesions, and possible signs of encephalitis.
bSensitivity of pathologic findings on gross necropsy for detecting WN virus.
cSpecificity of pathologic findings on gross necropsy for ruling out WN virus.
dDifferences between American Crows and other species combined significant at 0.05 level.
eDifferences between time periods (all species combined) significant at 0.001 level.

Main Article

1Bryon Backenson, Kristen Bernard, Hwa-Gan Chang, Alan Dupuis, Gregory Ebel, Ivan Gotham, Susan Jones, Elizabeth Kauffman, Dale Morse, John Napoli, Perry Smith, Charles Trimarchi, Barbara Wallace, Dennis White, Amy Willsey, New York State Department of Health

Page created: April 27, 2012
Page updated: April 27, 2012
Page reviewed: April 27, 2012
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
file_external