Mosquitoes’ taste for fowl keys disease defense
By WILLIAM M. HARTNETT
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Florida’s first line of defense against West Nile virus is lying on its back, strapped to a wooden contraption on the tailgate of a pickup, its legs held aloft in a pair of stirrups.
With a flick of his thumb, a man named Bob, who will later observe that “bleeding comes easy to me,” deftly uncaps a syringe in his right hand as he holds the “patient” steady with his left hand. And just as Bob is about to slide the needle into a vein, a slow, pathetic and low, almost pleading, sound resonates from deep within the creature’s throat:
“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawk-caaaaaawk-caaawk.”