MOSQUITOES BITING MANATEES

The first record of mosquitoes biting manatees is revealed in a new study by Lawrence Reeves, an entomologist at the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory in Vero Beach. There’s no proof any manatees have died from mosquito-borne viruses, Reeves said, but the study says they are susceptible to these viruses. Manatees generally have strong immune systems, but viruses such as West Nile and Eastern equine encephalitis are recent arrivals in America, and manatees haven’t had the chance to build up resistance to them yet. While necropsies performed on manatee carcasses have never has found animals with mosquito-borne viruses, labs don’t routinely test for them. The Florida manatee population has grown to at least 7,500 animals and the species was reclassified in May 2017 from “endangered” to “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act.