Jul 22, 2008 10:22 pm US/Pacific
26 Dead Birds Prompt Brentwood West Nile Warning
BRENTWOOD (BCN) ―
The Contra Costa County Mosquito and Vector Control District has identified Antioch and Brentwood as some of the higher-risk areas in the county for West Nile virus.
The mosquito district identifies high-risk areas using reports of dead birds collected by the California Department of Public Health, which plugs the data into a program at the University of California, Davis that calculates areas most likely to have high populations of infected mosquitoes.
In the past 21 days, 26 dead birds have been reported in Brentwood in an area roughly bordered by Central Boulevard to the north, Guthrie Lane to the east, Creek Road and Claremont Drive to the west and Payne Avenue to the south, Mosquito District spokeswoman Deborah Bass said.
"We've found that clusters of dead birds are a very good predictor of where human cases might occur," Bass said.
While high-risk areas shift daily depending on dead bird reports, Antioch has repeatedly come up as a higher-risk area, and the district fogged to kill adult mosquitoes in three areas there last week, Bass said.
People in both cities are being urged to protect themselves from mosquito bites and to routinely search their yards for standing water, where mosquitoes could lay their eggs.
In part because of the high number of foreclosed homes in East County, abandoned or neglected swimming pools have continued to be one of the main sources of mosquitoes.
Bass estimated that the district receives about 10 reports each day of abandoned or neglected swimming pools, which can produce hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes and endanger neighbors within a five-mile radius.
So far this year, no human cases of the mosquito-borne virus have been diagnosed in the county.
Statewide, seven human cases of the illness have been reported, including one in neighboring San Joaquin County. The other human cases have been reported in Orange, San Diego, Stanislaus and Tulare counties, according to the state's West Nile virus
Web site.
People are encouraged to continue to report dead birds to the California Department of Public Health at 877-WNV-BIRD.
To report mosquito problems in Contra Costa County, residents can call the Mosquito and Vector Control District at (925) 771-6195.
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