The first reported detection of the West Nile Virus in Warriors Mark Township, Huntingdon County, was announced Monday morning.
Details were sketchy this morning, but according to Kristen Bardell, of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the virus was found in a dead crow in Warriors Mark Township. Bardell, who works out of DEP’s south central regional office in Harrisburg, told The Daily News that the department’s policy is to identify the municipality in which the incident occurred but not the exact location.
“We’ll be increasing our surveillance and monitoring activities in that area,” observed Bardell.
According to Huntingdon County Conservation District manager Andy Patterson, county monitoring activities will be stepped up in the area. The county currently maintains a monitoring site in the Warriors Mark Township area. Patterson serves as the county West Nile Virus coordinator and the monitoring activities is being overseen by West Nile Virus intern Andy Miller, a student at Juniata College.
“We plan to increase our presence in that area,” remarked Patterson. “We expect to set up some additional monitoring sites.”
Bardell reported that an infected crow was found in Warriors Mark Township Aug. 7 by an unidentified person who alerted the local health department. No other details were immediately available.
West Nile virus monitoring activities in Huntingdon County runs from April through late fall when frost hits the area.
To date, the potentially lethal West Nile Virus has already been identified in 13 counties in Pennsylvania including neighboring Centre County. Although no humans have been infected with the mosquito-borne virus, health officials are seeing a larger number of cases this year.
Patterson said that the county is currently monitoring 15 sites in the county.
