Thanks to the severe dry spell this past Spring, Florida has just recorded its first West Nile virus human case for 2008. (A previous case was determined to have been infected out-of-state.) As a result of the latest case, Escambia County issued a a mosquito-borne illness advisory.
In addition, three more EEEV-confirmed positive horses were reported for Putnam, Santa Rosa, and Sumter counties.
The severe dry spell, at a time when Florida birds were nesting and therefore "stationary and easy targets", kept arbovirus transmission rates low despite the rains earlier in the year and the intense rains we experienced this summer.
Links to the Florida Department of Health Weekly Arbovirus Summary and a UF/IFAS news release on why mosquito populations are up but arboviruses
are scarce are available on the UF/IFAS Pest Alert site.
The UF/IFAS Pest Alert WWW site is available at http://pestalert.ifas.ufl.edu/ .
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