Posted on 10/05/2005 6:53:56 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
DNR confirms Montcalm County deer found with encephalitis
10/5/2005, 3:41 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
FAIRPLAIN TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed that a deer found in Montcalm County's Fairplain Township, which is east of Greenville, tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis.
With the addition of this case announced Wednesday, five deer in Michigan recently have tested positive for the deadly disease, which also poses a health risk to humans. Four infected deer were found late last month in neighboring Kent County's Cannon and Plainfield townships.
Michigan is only the third state where the disease has turned up in free-ranging white-tailed deer, the DNR said earlier. Georgia and Wisconsin both reported cases in 2001.
The disease is more commonly found in horses. It usually is spread by the bites of infected mosquitoes, although humans can become infected by getting brain or spinal cord matter from an infected animal in their eyes, lungs or skin wounds.
The DNR warned hunters to use extra caution while handling deer they have taken in Kent and Montcalm counties
It's all over Massachusetts also in bugs and I think birds. The death toll is at multiple persons over here in New England for EEE this summer
EEE has been a problem in some parts of Massachusetts for years (the South Shore, in particular).
However, this year it has spread to humans in southern New Hampshire, with 4 or 5 cases, and at least one death.
As far as the mosquito population goes, spring was cold and wet, but summer's been pretty dry.
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