EEE shows up far from Whiting swamp

Beginning to get the feeling that the EEE virus can 
be found wherever you take the time to look for it?

The State Department of Health announced in the middle of last week that a horse in Highgate, VT, was euthanized (on Aug. 30) after becoming ill from Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE). The health department's press release indicated, "This is evidence the mosquitoes in the area carry the virus."

This should not be a surprise. The state has documented the presence of EEE antibodies in deer and moose collected from all over Vermont, revealing that those animals had been exposed to but fought off the virus (probably recently, but no one seems to know how long the antibodies linger). However, state efforts to track the EEE virus and combat it (through aerial spraying of insecticides) have been concentrated in the area of the Whiting swamp in portions of Addison and Rutland counties. This seems designed in large part to quiet fears, because two area residents died in 2012 after contracting EEE.

The health department acknowledges, "Active mosquito surveillance is limited to those parts of Addison and Rutland counties and much more limited surveillance in parts of Franklin and Chittenden counties, so it's possible that EEE and West Nile virus are present in other parts of the state."

Highgate, sitting on the border with Canada, is almost as far as one can get from the Whiting swamp and still remain in the State of Vermont. (I shouldn't have to point out, but will, that the international border does not include mosquito netting, so EEE likely will be found in Canada too.)

It may be time for the state to put away the bug spray and launch a more comprehensive study of EEE in Vermont. It would be nice to know if this virus is a new threat to human health or if we actually have existed along with it every late summer for decades but only recently acquired the expertise to identify it.