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8.31.2001 00:16
Tests confirm
West Nile found
in traps off
Austin Avenue
By THOMAS J. MORGAN
Journal Staff Writer
SMITHFIELD
-- Test results released yesterday removed any doubt about the presence of West Nile virus in Smithfield -- It's here, the state Department of Environmental Management announced.
A pool of mosquitoes trapped on Aug. 18 off Austin Avenue in the Greenville-West Greenville area, not far from Glocester and Johnston, contained the virus, the DEM said. The organism has now been identified in several Rhode Island towns, including nearby Foster.
B. James Suzman, director of the town Highway Department, said in response to the findings that workers will begin placing poisonous pellets in drains and catch basins throughout Smithfield next week in an attempt to decimate mosquito larvae and reduce the risk of exposure.
The DEM said it would continue trapping mosquitoes in the Austin Avenue area, checking not only for West Nile virus but also for Eastern Equine Encephalitis, another mosquito-borne disease. The agency urged nearby residents to take normal precautions. West Nile virus is rarely fatal. It affects the very young and the frail elderly and those whose immune systems are compromised.
According to the environmental agency, the five mosquitoes found in the Aug. 18 trap belonged to the genus Culex, which mainly preys on birds but can bite humans.
The exotic disease spreads when a mosquito draws blood from an infected bird and then selects a human target. The virus lurks in the insect's salivary glands. The mosquito injects saliva when it bites because the fluid contains a substance that keeps blood from clotting. The clotting would stop the mosquito's feeding plans. The virus then rides the saliva into the victim's body.
Mosquitoes breed by laying their eggs in still water. Austin Avenue sits in a virtual ring of ponds and reservoirs. Slack Reservoir and Waterman Reservoir are the largest bodies of water nearby.
The DEM said it set the Austin Avenue trap in a bid to check on "suspect-positive" findings earlier this month from other trapping operations. Those findings were apparently confirmed by independent testing by a laboratory in Massachusetts, the DEM said on Wednesday. Yesterday's announcement solidified the evidence.
Suzman said that his department has been "proactive" in meeting the West Nile virus challenge.
When the applications of larvicide in catch basins, sewers, retention ponds and other small bodies of stagnant water begin next week, it will be the third such attack on the local mosquito population this summer, he said.
The highway director said one additional distribution of the larvicide is planned for October, after which frost is expected to curtail the mosquito season.
He said there are no plans to spray town roads from trucks equipped with "fogging" gear that spreads insecticide.
"We abide by what the state says," Suzman said. "Last year we did spraying in a small area of the northerly quadrant of Smithfield after they found a dead bird in North Smithfield."
State guidelines at that time required spraying in a two-mile radius from the point where dead birds tested positive for the virus.
The DEM said yesterday that lessons learned from last year's experience, plus consultation with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the level of bird infection does not necessarily correlate with the risk to humans. As a result, the DEM said, "Spraying this year will be recommended only when a team of mosquito-control experts determines that the public is at substantial risk of being bitten by infected mosquitoes."
"I understand that this year we will not be doing any fogging unless there is a severe situation," Suzman said. "People should just use good judgment -- the elderly and youngsters. They should use repellent and not go camping in the woods without long sleeves."
The DEM said that Rhode Islanders can minimize their exposure to potential disease-carrying mosquitoes by making sure they have screens on their windows, by using a mosquito repellent with up to 30 percent DEET, by covering up at dawn and dusk, and by draping mosquito netting over baby carriages and playpens.
Anything that contains standing water in yards should be removed or emptied. Typical places where mosquitoes breed are pools of water in old tires, buckets, junk and other debris. Gutters should be cleaned out to make sure they do not contain standing water.
There was one light note in an otherwise dark symphony of information: "Before we started all this I never had an exact count of how many catch basins and drains we had in town," Suzman said. "Now we know it's 1,137."
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