KATC (Lafayette, Louisiana) 20 June 04 Geckos' role in West Nile Virus - Experts studying geckos' role in spread of West Nile Virus
Baton Rouge, Louisiana (AP): Scientists are on a gecko hunt to see whether the ubiquitous lizards carry West Nile virus or help control it.
Mediterranean house geckos have spread throughout the Gulf Coast since the early 1900s, when they came to Florida on European ships.
They are active at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active, and stay near lights, which attract the moths and other bugs they eat.
Graduate student Karen Gruszynski and Mark Mitchell, an assistant professor of zoological medicine at LSU, have several questions they want to answer.
One is whether, like birds, geckos can carry enough virus in their blood to pass it on to mosquitoes which bite them. If that doesn't happen, could their blood indicate where the virus is spreading?
Or do they just eat mosquitoes without being infected, making them well worth keeping around?
Gruzynski, a doctoral student in veterinary medical science, and Mitchell try to collect 13 geckos a month from each of four sites around East Baton Rouge Parish.
The study is expected to take seven months; Mitchell hopes to have results by the end of the year.
If geckos spread West Nile to mosquitoes, the state may need to look at ways to control the lizards, Mitchell said. "If they play a positive role, in that they are eating mosquitoes without infecting them, they are an important species to maintain," he said.
Catching the reptiles is a low-tech affair. Carrying a flashlight and a makeshift gecko-catcher — a broom with an aquarium net duct-taped to the end — Mitchell scans the walls of the building for movement.
Seeing a gecko clinging to a wall, Mitchell lunges toward the lizard, sprinting to trap the creature in his net before it can escape.
For Mitchell, who has traveled all over the globe studying wildlife, work outside of the lab is what makes him tick.
"I just really enjoy getting out in the field ... in the open, in the outdoors," he said. "It's just very refreshing to have that opportunity."
Each gecko is measured to determine approximate age, and placed in a plastic box.
In the lab, they are euthanized and dissected.
The researchers had hoped to keep them alive, but it is all but impossible to get enough blood to test without killing the geckos, Gruszynski said.
She works in a cramped lab in the Veterinary Medicine building at LSU. Vials of specimens line the crowded cabinets. A sign on a microwave warns "No food or drinks." The oven is used to heat chemicals.
She must remove spleen, kidney, brain and intestines from an animal rarely longer than 3 inches from nose to tail.
The spleen, kidneys and brains are tested for West Nile virus, while the intestines will be used for an unrelated salmonella study.
The gecko study and similar ones of squirrels and other animals help the parish prepare for West Nile season, said Randy Vaeth, a biologist with East Baton Rouge Parish Mosquito Abatement and Rodent Control.
"The more we know about what species are involved, the more we can fine-tune our control efforts and break the cycle," he said.
Vaeth said the parish has the "same level of vigilance" this year as last, when it had few human cases even though the virus was frequently found in mosquitoes.
West Nile first surfaced in the United States in 1999 when seven people died of the disease in New York City. Since then, it has made thousands of people ill and been found in 47 states.
The virus is named for the West Nile District of Uganda, where it was first identified in 1937. Africa, Europe, the Middle East and North America have had outbreaks since then.
The virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, though a handful of people have been infected through blood transfusions.
Most infections don't cause any symptoms, and most people who do get sick have a flu-like illness, called West Nile fever. Fewer than than 1 percent of infections develop into West Nile encephalitis or meningitis, which can be fatal and often damage the brain.
Louisiana had 330 cases and 25 deaths in 2002; the figures fell to to 121 and seven last year. No people have been diagnosed this year with the disease.
Geckos' role in West