WEST NILE virus, the Old World avian infection that invaded North America
last year and killed seven people in New York, is now on the march in Europe.
Since August it has killed some 20 horses in southern France in an area which
has not seen the infection since the 1960s. The prime suspects for bringing it
back are migrating birds.
The virus infects birds in Africa, west Asia and south-eastern Europe, and is
spread by mosquitoes. It can cause fatal brain inflammation in horses and
people. In 1998 it appeared in Italian horses and last year somehow reached
North…
