A historically wet winter and, now, hotter summer are leading to “pretty big” warning signs for West Nile virus in the Western US, public health and mosquito control experts say, suggesting that residents should take care to avoid bites.
“The number of mosquitoes that have hatched off after the spring snowmelt is pretty tremendous in many of the states, whether it be Colorado or Utah or California,” said Daniel Markowski, technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association. Many districts are starting to see West Nile virus in mosquitoes, he said, meaning “you’re at the right temperature, the right mosquito population and the right time of year for localized outbreaks to occur.
And those surveillance systems in Western states are starting to produce “pretty big” warning signs for a potentially more active West Nile season, Markowski said. In California, 147 dead birds had been found as of July 28, almost double what’s typically seen at this time of year, based on the state’s five-year average. The signals seen in “sentinel chickens” – flocks that vector control agencies use to monitor where the virus is spreading – are similarly ahead.
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