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Fight the Bite: West Nile Returns to Acadiana

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Fight the Bite: West Nile Returns to Acadiana

As we end the week, a heads up for your outdoor plans this weekend, West Nile virus is in Acadiana, but luckily no human cases to report.
Today though, two test results came back positive for the virus.
The first, in a chicken between Iota and Eunice.
The other, a dead bird found in Broussard near Morgan Avenue.
These follow earlier cases this week of West Nile virus in bird and mosquito pools in Lafayette Parish.

Earlier in July, Lafayette Parish was on high alert. Out of 21 test chickens, 13 of them tested positive for the mosquito-spread virus.
But Friday afternoon, mosquito control expert Glenn Stokes says the chickens have gone from almost all of them being positive, to none.
"There was 13 that were positive out of 21. So now, it's been a week, all 21 sentinel chickens have been sampled and they're negative", acknowledges Stokes.
Stokes says because they've increased spraying in Lafayette Parish they've been able to successfully decrease the mosquito population. But he says just because we don't see that many mosquito's, it doesn't mean that we're out of the woods just yet.
"Get off me dude", exclaims Sherry Boudreaux as she swats away a mosquito.
She lives on Westchester Drive in Lafayette. Both a mosquito pool and a bird tested positive for West Nile this past week, which has Boudreaux and her neighbors trying to fight the bite.
"We're just going to have to be very very cautious until they give us the clear", says Boudreaux, who's taking every precaution she can, because she's seen firsthand the effects of West Nile.
Boudreaux says, "One of my students mother's had gotten it three years ago and it was treacherous."
While some are spraying their defenses, others aren't taking too many chances, like Nita Veronie.
"I'm staying inside a whole lot. I hardly ever go out. I try to keep my yard dry with no water so the mosquito's don't linger", says Veronie.

 




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