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The Westerly Sun 8/30/00 Back
No Groton spraying effort planned despite West Nile virus confirmation
By Sun Staff and Associated Press
Mystic -A dead crow found near the Mystic River earlier this month has tested positive for the West Nile virus, officials said Tuesday.
But, unlike its counterpart, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management which sprayed areas of Westerly for mosquitoes Monday night, the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday there is no plan to spray insecticide in the area.
The confirmation of the West Nile virus in the Groton area marks the latest in several Connecticut communities. The virus has been found in dead birds or mosquitoes in 29 communities around the state, including six that were just reported Tuesday.
In addition to the case in Groton, West Nile was confirmed Tuesday in crows tested in Bethel, New Britain, Waterbury, Bloomfield, Mystic and Monroe. All the crows were found to have the mosquito-borne virus when tested between Aug. 17 and 23. Infected birds also were found in eight communities where the virus had also been detected earlier this summer: Chesire, Fairfield, Milford, Shelton, Darien, New Canaan, Wallingford and West Hartford.
Environmental and health officials in Connecticut and Rhode Island continued to emphasize Tuesday that the threat of a human being contracting West Nile is remote. But the discovery of an infected bird on Sherwood Drive in Westerly, as well as in a number of other Rhode Island towns, sent DEM and town officials scurrying to spray the insecticide Sumithrin in a 2-mile radius of where the infected bird was discovered.
According to Connecticut officials, policy is to begin spraying only if mosquitoes test positive for West Nile or the deadly Eastern equine encephalitis.
Authorities said 140 birds have tested positive for the virus in Connecticut so far this year, 136 of them crows.
The virus also has been found in three pools of mosquitoes collected in Stamford and Norwalk.
West Nile virus is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes that have bitten infected birds. In humans, the virus can sometimes lead to a deadly swelling of the brain. And the virus was blamed for seven deaths last year in the New York City borough of Queens.
But no human cases have ever been reported in either Connecticut or Rhode Island.
"Finding birds in six new communities does not come as a surprise," said Connecticut Department of Environmental Commissioner Arthur J. Rocque Jr.
"Positive crows have already turned up in many of the towns around the state at this point, and we expect to see positive crows all over the state,"
Rocque added. "All Connecticut residents should participate in protecting themselves from the bite of a mosquito and eliminate mosquito breeding sites."
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