LAKEPORT — A dead crow tested positive on Friday for the West Nile virus and was the first indication of the virus” presence in Lake County this year, according to the county”s Vector Control District.
Art Colwell, Vector Control general manager, said that the dead crow was found in Nice on Thursday and was tested in-house using a detecting system called Vectest the following day.
Positive presence of WNV was determined Friday afternoon.
“This is about the time that things start to pick up every year,” said Colwell. “Virus activity in 2004 and 2005 started around July and increased in August and September. We”re expecting to see more dead birds. Just exactly when that will happen we don”t know, but we”d like to encourage the public to call the West Nile virus hotline (877-WNV-BIRD) to report any dead birds.”
Keeping track of dead birds is one of five categories Vector Control uses to monitor the WNV problem. Others are mosquito pools, sentinel chickens, horses and humans.
In 2004, all five categories turned up positive, including the only human WNV case in Lake County to date. In 2005, four of the five categories tested positive.
As part of the monitoring system, blood samples of flocks of 10 sentinel chickens each in Upper Lake and Lower Lake are taken every two weeks.
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mchsi.com.
