Queens Braces for Mosquitoes After Crows Die of West Nile

Is Queens next? An accelerated early warning system has been put in place here after reports last week that crows testing positive for West Nile Virus in Rockland and Bergen Counties.
Although officials of the state and city health departments say there is no immediate health or safety risk to the well-being of the population, "comprehensive surveillance activities are under way to test birds and mosquitoes.
On June 9, Rockland County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef confirmed that two crows were found dead there and tested positive for West Nile Virus, while on infected crow was found dead in nearby Bergen County, N.J., according to officials there.
Dr. Neal L. Cohen, City Health Department Commissioner, said the findings in Rockland and Bergen underscores the importance of intensive efforts to test birds and mosquitoes, as well as to conduct human surveillance in cooperation with medical providers, to identify any possible return of West Nile virus as soon as possible.
The Rockland birds were discovered in a residential neighborhood in New City, about 10 miles from the New Jersey state line and 34 miles from the city. State health officials said they thought the birds were a mating couple. The New Jersey crow was found in River Edge.
Bergen officials said they dont plan any aerial spraying even though the West Nile Virus turned up in a dead crow. However, County Executive Pat Shuber says they are taking no chances.
Officials have put 8,000 mosquito eating fish in 23 ponds and waterways. theyre also treating swampy areas with chemicals that kill mosquito larvae.
Shuber said people should eliminate any standing water, which is where mosquitoes breed. The disease has not been found in any people in the Garden State.
The reports stirred fears that officials would start spraying, but health officials said that spraying represented a last resort. Rather, they advised residents to avoid mosquitoes which carry the sometime lethal West Nile Virus.
Under a new system proposed by Congressman Joseph Crowley, Dr. Steven Ostroff of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He confirmed that the cases were the first to be isolated anywhere in the U.S. this year.
Queens residents were particularly on edge because of the finding of three crows because College Point was ground zero for last summers outbreak that took seven lives and sickened dozens of New Yorkers.
One official Dr. Ward Stone, the chief wildlife pathologist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said there were "reasons for concern." He said that despite eradication efforts last fall and this spring, new cases of the virus had been expected to surface as mosquitoes proliferate with the arrival of warm weather.