Biosecurity

The D.C. Monument Full of Zika Mosquitoes

The newest monument in Washington, D.C., is not a soaring stone obelisk or a bigger-than-life statue but a thigh-high cement birdbath.

Once two tiered, now one, the birdbath is no less apt a symbol of unconscionable inaction in the Capitol three blocks away.

On each of the previous four years, the birdbath has produced living specimens of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, best known for carrying the Zika virus.

And, even as the Senate proceeds to the Fourth of July recess without passing a bill funding Zika research, a scientific team is poised to test whether the birdbath and its immediate vicinity have produced a fifth generation of the bugs.