Tracy Press

 
A dead crow found in Tracy was found to have the West Nile virus, officials reported this week.

A dead crow found in Tracy was confirmed infected with West Nile Virus, the first sign of the pathogen in the Central Valley this year, the San Joaquin County Mosquito and Vector Control District found late Wednesday.

District entomologist Stacy Bearden found the bird on a plot of land near Schulte and Corral Hollow roads — the same spot where she found the last bird, also a crow, that tested positive for the infection in July last year. Like most birds, crows live only five days after getting infected, she said.

Bearden said vector control scientists find the virus a week earlier every year.

“It just gets warmer sooner,” she said.

Since the virus is heat-activated, she added, a few consecutive days of 100-degree weather in early May livened up the dormant contagion, which is transported from mosquitoes to other animals, including humans.

A dozen California counties have reported infected or dead animals because of the virus this year.

The first recorded human case of the virus now endemic to the county was in summer 2004, when a man died from the avian infection. Two Central Valley residents, a horse and 158 birds have since died from it. Forty-one of those birds died in Tracy.

This year, instead of waiting for the public to report and take in virus-killed animals, the district will go out and collect them. That might increase the number of recorded infections, Bearden said.

“It’s come to a point where we just expect it now,” Bearden said. “Around this time of year, we start keeping an eye out for it.”

Crows seem to be the most commonly affected, she said, but all birds are susceptible.

“We just get a lot of people sending in crows because they’re bigger and more visible,” she said. “There could be a dead sparrow in a field somewhere, but you can’t really see it.”

Squirrels and chickens are also easily infected.

The vector control district offers free mosquitofish, which eat mosquito larvae, for county residents to let loose in stagnant water.

A rise in vacant homes because of foreclosure has left many untended swimming pools in town — ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

“Right now, the main concern is that we want people to really drain any standing water on their property,” said district spokesman Aaron Devencenzi. “We will see many more mosquitoes this summer, and then we’re dealing with all the green pools from foreclosures. It’s taking a lot of manpower to address that.”

The county vector control has more than 70 traps set up throughout the county, including the one where the infected bird was found this week. Vector scientists like Bearden check the traps regularly.

•We want to hear what you have to say. To reach Tracy Press reporter Jennifer Wadsworth, call 830-4225 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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written by Dave Hardesty , June 02, 2008

“This year, instead of waiting for the public to report and take in virus-killed animals, the district will go out and collect them. That might increase the number of recorded infections, Bearden said. “

Might? How about will? If you set out more traps and take a more proactive approach to collecting dead birds no doubt you will have an increase number of recorded infections.

While this is all well and good, and I even support more of this type of activity, I do want to pause long enough to remind all readers to beware of future “sensationalized headlines” when the next report on this subject indicates a rapid rise of the spread of this disease.

Numbers and statistics are all good things but it is easy to fall into a trap in believing that things are better or worse than they actually are when you start changing the methods by which you record these numbers in the first place.

So when you next read they have discovered a 50% increase in the spread of West Nile Virus from last year, please don’t go off in a panic because the methodology by which they gathered these numbers for comparison have now dramatically changed.

Oh and folks, you can really help to solve this problem by ensuring you have no standing water on your respective properties where these critters can breed.

Dave Hardesty

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written by Tracy RealNews , June 02, 2008

Hmmmm.... When I called in previous years, they said they won't remove the bird's carcass. Lot's of crow carcasses went into people's trash cans over the last few years because they didn't collect them?

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written by Tracy RealNews , June 02, 2008

Perhaps some incidents could have went uninvestigated? Thus unreported. Perhaps the TP will have a follow up article???