COLUMBUS, Ohio – As the state resumes testing mosquitoes for West Nile virus, local health officials continue their battle against the pests.
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The Ohio Department of Health’s testing program was a victim of federal budget cuts last year. The funding was restored in a mid-cycle budget bill that took effect July 1.
About 80 local health departments use the department’s suburban Columbus lab, which has gotten about 36,000 mosquitoes in the past 10 days, state public health entomologist Richard Gary tells The Columbus Dispatch.
Some cities and counties started their own testing after the program was lost. Gary says having a state lab gives a better picture of the West Nile situation across Ohio.
The lab had confirmed a West Nile virus-infected mosquito in Licking County this month and crews sprayed in the Morgan Woods Subdivision in of Newark Thursday after a new pool of mosquitoes tested positive for the virus, county health director Joe Ebel said.
Columbus Public Health crews were also out this week, spraying in North Linden and Northland Friday morning.
Weekly spraying areas are determined by mosquito trap results and reports from field staff, the number and type of mosquitoes trapped, the number of infected mosquitoes and evidence of human disease, spokesman Jose Rodriguez said.