9.8.2000 00:20
THE BATTLE AGAINST WEST NILE AND EEE -
CREATING A NO-FLY ZONE
Communities take on mosquito-borne viruses
By JENNIFER LEVITZ, ANDREW GOLDSMITH and MEREDITH GOLDSTEIN
Journal Staff Writers
Southeastern New England was on heightened alert over mosquito-borne viruses again last night. Two emus in Rehoboth were reported dead from Eastern equine encephalitis, and residents in South County and Coventry saw trucks loaded with pesticide move through their towns after the West Nile virus was found there in recent days.
Some 72 pools of mosquitoes collected last week from traps across Rhode Island, however, tested negative for both West Nile virus and EEE, the Department of Environmental Management reported yesterday.
West Nile virus is considered a bigger threat because it is more easily spread from mosquitoes to humans. The EEE virus, by contrast, is usually limited to mosquitoes that don't bite humans. EEE, however, is better known to the region and has already cropped up two other times this summer. In Norton, Mass., six emus died from the virus early last month. In North Providence, a dead blue jay found on Aug. 27 tested positive for the virus.
After cool weather delayed spraying for two days, crews last night doused parts of South Kingstown, Narragansett and Coventry with the pesticide Sumithrin. Trucks moving 10 mph honed in on two-mile areas around both of the spots where the West Nile virus was recently found, in a horse and a crow.
"Hopefully, we'll annihilate them," said Jon R. Schock, public services director of South Kingstown, where a horse at a Wakefield stable contracted the West Nile virus, and was euthanized on Aug. 28.
Westerly -- where swamps have long been mosquito havens -- also sprayed last night, although the town already sprayed after a crow infected with West Nile was found on Aug. 17.
With the discovery of EEE in Rehoboth, crews will spray this morning in the area around 322 Anawan St., where two emus died of the virus, said Bristol County Mosquito Control Supt. Alan DeCastro.
The EEE virus is carried by birds and melanura mosquitoes, which are mostly found in swamps. The disease can, in rare cases, be passed on to mosquitoes that do bite humans.
The last time someone contracted the virus in Massachusetts was in 1997. No Massachusetts resident has died from EEE since 1995, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
There were also few reported cases in Rhode Island. The diseased blue jay in North Providence was the first case of EEE reported in Rhode Island this year. During the last outbreak of EEE in Rhode Island, in 1998, all of the evidence pointed to mosquitoes that bit birds exclusively.
Although the risk of contracting either virus is extremely low, EEE is considered more deadly to humans than the West Nile. The West Nile virus can cause illness, but is rarely fatal. The EEE virus causes swelling of the brain, which is known as encephalitis. Three out of every 10 people who get the virus die from it, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
DeCastro, the Bristol mosquito control supervisor, said residents in the Rehoboth area should not panic.
"It's an isolated incident," he said. "None of the mosquitoes in traps in Rehoboth have tested positive for [EEE]."
Two years ago, emus died from the virus at the same Norton farm and at another farm in Essex.
Emus are large, flightless birds native to Australia. They resemble ostriches, and are popular with breeders for their low-fat red meat.
But Rehoboth resident Kathryn Ottone said she kept her flock of emus as pets at her house at 322 Anawan St.
One emu died Wednesday, and the second one on Saturday. Neither animal showed any signs of the virus, she said. But in both cases, she awoke to find the birds had hemorrhaged from their mouths.
When the first bird died, she thought there had been a power struggle between two males among her five emus.
"But when the second one died, I knew something was up," she said last night.
Massachusetts health officials tested the emus. The results came back Wednesday.
She was alarmed, she said. Although she knew about the emus in Norton, she had heard nothing about the virus being a threat in Rehoboth.
"The [EEE virus] is much more widespread than they initially thought," she said.
Officials hope spraying will continue to reduce the mosquito population, which peaks from July to late September.
In South Kingstown last night, the town's mosquito abatement director, Ray Nickerson, pointed out that officials really only wanted to annihilate mosquitoes near people's houses. The trucks would stop spraying as they passed fields and swamps.
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