Alligators May Transmit West Nile Virus

[Richard W Travsky <rtravsky@uwyo.edu>]

Not exactly dinos. However, it addresses a raised eyebrow or two I'd had
about the Jurassic Park book/movie(s) about insects biting dinosaurs.

 http://www.palmbeachpost.com/hp/content/news/0803gators.html

 Sunday, Aug. 3, 2003

 GAINESVILLE (AP) - Alligators might be as effective as birds at
 transmitting the West Nile virus, University of Florida scientists said. 

 The virus is spread by mosquitoes, which transmit it from infected birds.
 But researchers found levels of the virus in alligators that are as high
 as amounts in birds, which means the reptiles can likely pass on the
 infection to other animals, said Elliot Jacobson, an expert in reptile
 disease at the university.
 ...
 The findings come from a study of about 300 captive alligators that died
 last year in Christmas. Necropsies showed the alligators had viral loads
 of West Nile that were high enough to infect mosquitoes.

 The alligators were probably infected initially by mosquitoes, which bite
 the alligators soft eyelids, tongues and mouths, Jacobson said. Then the
 gators spread the virus among themselves through water in their holding
 tanks. 
 ...


Still, this sorta conjures up an image of a poor dinosaur's head enveloped
in a cloud of biting insects if that was about the only place where they
could bite. That, or the skeeters back then were as big as sparrows...