Asiatic Clam

ORIGIN
Its origin is in eastern Asia and Africa. Exactly when and how is arrived in the United States is unknown.
HABITAT
The Asian clam does well in estuarine habitats and river beds and is found in fresh waters throughout the United States. It has colonized areas of the Delaware and Ohio River basins, and is found in all five Gulf states and northern Mexico. Populations have been reported for the San Francisco Bay, California and Chesapeake Bay, Virginia.
IDENTIFICATION
Adults can reach 50 mm in length. The shell has distinct rings and is a yellow-brown color.
SPREAD
Immature Asian clams are free-floating and difficult to see, two factors that have contributed to their rapid spread across the United States. The clams have a higher tolerance to pollutants than native species, allowing for colonization in areas that would most likely not be inhabited by native species.
IMPACT
Much like the zebra and quagga mussels, the Asian clam is known to clog intake pipes, damage industrial water systems, alter aquatic habitat, and disrupt irrigation canals. There is also concern that Asian clams compete for food with native mussels and clams.
PREVENTION AND CONTROL
In open systems such as the Ohio River, careful maintenance of boat and other watercraft should be observed. All watercraft should be washed thoroughly with HOT water. Bait buckets should never be transferred between bodies of water. Control methods are similar to those of zebra and quagga mussels. In closed environments, such as power plants, mechanical or chemical control methods are used to eradicate the species.

Spanish Flu Outbreak

In the fall of 1918 the Great War in Europe was winding down and peace was on the horizon. The Americans had joined in the fight, bringing the Allies closer to victory against the Germans. Deep within the trenches these men lived through some of the most brutal conditions of life, which it seemed could not be any worse. Then, in pockets across the globe, something erupted that seemed as benign as the common cold. The influenza of that season, however, was far more than a cold. In the two years that this scourge ravaged the earth, a fifth of the world's population was infected. The flu was most deadly for people ages 20 to 40. This pattern of morbidity was unusual for influenza which is usually a killer of the elderly and young children. It infected 28% of all Americans (Tice). An estimated 675,000 Americans died of influenza during the pandemic, ten times as many as in the world war. Of the U.S. soldiers who died in Europe, half of them fell to the influenza virus and not to the enemy (Deseret News). An estimated 43,000 servicemen mobilized for WWI died of influenza (Crosby). 1918 would go down as unforgettable year of suffering and death and yet of peace. As noted in the Journal of the American Medical Association final edition of 1918: (12/28/1918).

"The 1918 has gone: a year momentous as the termination of the most cruel war in the annals of the human race; a year which marked, the end at least for a time, of man's destruction of man; unfortunately a year in which developed a most fatal infectious disease causing the death of hundreds of thousands of human beings. Medical science for four and one-half years devoted itself to putting men on the firing line and keeping them there. Now it must turn with its whole might to combating the greatest enemy of all--infectious disease,"

The effect of the influenza epidemic was so severe that the average life span in the US was depressed by 10 years. The influenza virus had a profound virulence, with a mortality rate at 2.5% compared to the previous influenza epidemics, which were less than 0.1%. The death rate for 15 to 34-year-olds of influenza and pneumonia were 20 times higher in 1918 than in previous years (Taubenberger). People were struck with illness on the street and died rapid deaths. One anectode shared of 1918 was of four women playing bridge together late into the night. Overnight, three of the women died from influenza (Hoagg). Others told stories of people on their way to work suddenly developing the flu and dying within hours (Henig). One physician writes that patients with seemingly ordinary influenza would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen" and later when cyanosis appeared in the patients, "it is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate," (Grist, 1979). Another physician recalls that the influenza patients "died struggling to clear their airways of a blood-tinged froth that sometimes gushed from their nose and mouth," (Starr, 1976). The physicians of the time were helpless against this powerful agent of influenza. In 1918 children would skip rope to the rhyme (Crawford):
 

I had a little bird,

Its name was Enza.

I opened the window,

And in-flu-enza.

Hitichi

Since i wasnt able to attend most labs this was my first and only off campus lab and i was quite grateful to be able to attend this one.  The walk was a real trek but it was worth it being able to see the river even after most of the group dispersed.  The various forms of plants and foliage was quite pretty and unique.  I did not know middle georgia had bamboo plants that was really cool to discover.  I really enjoyed the expedition and the class overrall.