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The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services warns horse owners that West Nile Virus could pose threats to horses in the state.
Health officials have found cases of West Nile Virus-positive birds from several areas of the state, including Blackstone, Tidewater and the counties of Fauquier and Pittsylvania.
The increased rainfall this year has resulted in an abundance of puddles and flooded ditches, which could make 2003 a very bad year for West Nile Virus, especially as temperatures warm up significantly and Virginia continues to get occasional rains.
All of the equine encephalitis viruses, which include West Nile Virus as well as Eastern Equine Encephalitis, follow a similar pattern of residing most of the year in wild bird or mammal hosts and becoming a problem only when there are enough mosquitoes present to transmit the virus from the wild bird reservoir into horses or people.
This pattern is related to rainfall and temperature, which have been favorable for the production of mosquitoes in the past few weeks. Typical symptoms of encephalitis include staggering, circling, depression, loss of appetite and sometimes fever and blindness.
There is no cure for these diseases, which can kill anywhere from 30 percent to 90 percent of the horses infected. Humans cannot become infected by handling an infected horse; however, the presence of an infected horse in the area indicates that mosquitoes carry
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