Relationship between Some Coastal Fauna and Arthropod-borne Fevers of North Queensland

FOLLOWING on an outbreak of dengue fever in Townsville, North Queensland, in the early months of 1954, O'Connor et al. 1 found that the sera of some members of species of flying foxes (genus Pteropus ) gave positive protection tests against the dengue type 1 (Hawaiian) strain. At the same time sera were collected from locally migratory birds, the black duck ( Anas superciliosa ) and grey teal ( Querquedula gibberifrons ), which mainly frequent the inland swamps, and also from wading birds (Charadriiformes) along the sea shore. These latter are found on the mudflats and sandpits, which are often in close proximity to the mangrove swamps where the flying foxes camp during daylight hours.