October 01, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, October 01, 2004

West Nile Virus found in county's birds, not humans

The West Nile Virus has been found in 16 birds and one squirrel in Alameda County, but no humans have been diagnosed in the East Bay with the illness so far, said John Rusmisel, district manager for Alameda County Mosquito Abatement. Seventeen people had died from the virus in California as of Tuesday, all in Southern California, and 643 had been diagnosed throughout the state.

As predicted, the virus spread north in California during the late summer. The state Department of Health Services announced last month that it will receive $442,000 in additional federal support for activities to protect the public from the virus.

"The money is staying with the Department of Health Services to pay for additional surveillance," said Rusmisel. "The DHS office at the Richmond Field Station has been handling all the dead bird reports. They have had close to 80,000 birds reported year to date. At the peak of calls they were getting around 15,000 calls a week."

In California so far this year, 141 horses, which have a sensitivity to mosquito-borne encephalitis, were euthanized or died after infection with West Nile virus, out of 327 horses who contracted the disease. There is no documented evidence of person-to-person transmission or animal-to-person transmission of the virus, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control Web site.

"San Joaquin County has had two horse cases, one fatal," said Rusmisel. "The horse that survived is from Corral Hollow Road, very close to the border with Alameda County."

Fewer than 40 infected dogs and only one cat were reported to CDC during 2003. Evidence shows that dogs cannot develop enough virus in their bloodstream to infect other mosquitoes.

"Some dogs and cats have been found with antibodies to West Nile Virus but it doesn't seem to be a big problem for the average cat or dog," said Rusmisel.

The local Mosquito Abatement District has been fighting the virus by educating the public and urging it to eradicate mosquito breeding grounds. It provides mosquito fish free of charge, delivered to home ponds. These fish consume mosquito larvae and have proven effective in preventing mosquito breeding in freshwater ponds and streams.

"The fish requests from the Tri-Valley area used to lag behind the number of calls from Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro," said Rusmisel. "Now they are equal to Berkeley."

This August the district had 324 fish requests from throughout Alameda County, as well as 69 people going to the Hayward office for fish, said Rusmisel. Typically in August, there would be about 200 requests.

"This week, the service calls are down considerably most likely due to the cooler weather," said Rusmisel. "Next year will be the big year for WNV in the Bay Area; it always hits hard on the second year, which for us is 2005."

Rusmisel noted that Gov. Scharzenegger signed AB 1982 recently, which requires wetlands owned or managed by the state Department of Fish and Game to use Best Management Practices to prevent mosquito production. A companion bill provides $750,000 for help pay for water control structures, grading, mowing and pumping.

The $27 million the state has given local mosquito districts is the amount that they would have paid to help balance the budget for two years, said Rusmisel. "That is not any additional funds, only a savings of what we would have lost."

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