Ramford
County health officials have identified 153
birds infected with the SRRV virus in what
is believed to be the first occurrence of
the disease this season in the county
region.
The infected birds
were among 208 dead birds found in
two-thirds of the county's regions, said a
spokesman for the State Department of Health
in Ramford County. The department has
just completed the year's first round of
testing for the mosquito-borne disease,
which has spread fear at picnics, little
league games and children's camps.
Sixty-five of the
infected birds were found bordering the
Perdont Chicken Industry which lies adjacent
to the GRO - UP Organic Farm
Industry. Ninety-eight other
birds were found by the large Ramford Lake
south-west of the main Ramford River. There
have been no reported incidents of the virus
in humans in the region this year.
Last year,
when the virus was detected for the first
time in |
the Western
Hemisphere, this region
increased their surveillance for the
mosquitoes that pass the infection to birds
and humans.
Last mosquito
season, 800 Ramford residents contracted
SRRV but there were no mortalities.
However, 15,000 chickens in the Ramford's
Poultry Industries died or had to be
destroyed when SRRV was detected and more
than 300 dead wild birds were collected that
tested positive for the virus.
Commissioner
Amwell Now, director of the Department of
Health, said Ramford County has been on the
alert since March, conducting surveillance
of adult mosquitoes and their larvae and
trying to eliminate areas of standing water
where mosquitoes might breed. Testing
dead birds has been adopted as the best
early warning system for detecting the virus
in the area, he said.
The positive
results for the wild birds will lead Ramford
County to intensify their surveillance of
the adult mosquito population. Only if
that effort turns up more infected
mosquitoes, officials said, will they
consider local spraying. The strategy
was controversial last year. |