We are just fortunate that the first evidence of West Nile Virus was found at the end of mosquito season. The risk of mosquito-borne diseases is reduced because the weather is becoming cooler and mosquito populations are on the decline. For this reason, public health officials have decided not to spray pesticides in the area where the bird was found. West Nile Virus can cause encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain. People, equine and birds can be infected from the bite of a mosquito carrying the disease, but there is no evidence that equine can transmit the West Nile Virus to other horses, birds or people.
Mosquitoes get West Nile Virus when they bite an infected bird.
They do not get West Nile Virus from biting infected humans or equine. Not all equine with clinical signs of encephalitis have West Nile encephalitis. Symptoms include loss of appetite and depression, in addition to fever, weakness or paralysis of hind limbs, convulsions, inability to swallow, circling, impaired vision, head pressing, aimless wandering, hyperexcitability or a coma. The virus originates from Africa, west Asia, and Europe and was first found in the United States last summer in New York City. Since then the virus has spread down the eastern seaboard of the United States into 11 states, including North Carolina.