Bird tests positive for West Nile in Centre County

Another bird has died from West Nile virus in Centre County. This one happened to expire on my Taylor Township property.

While the Zika virus gets most of the press these days, the West Nile virus is another mosquito-borne disease that can kill. It infects birds and mammals — including humans. Certain species of birds are more susceptible — crows, blue jays and raptors — than others. Most birds that die from the disease do so without anyone finding or testing them.

Common symptoms for humans include headaches, fever, fatigue and body aches. For most, the symptoms dissipate — even if untreated. However, for about 1 percent of the cases, the disease becomes more severe — developing into encephalitis, meningitis or worse.

According to a Penn State College of Agriculture Science brochure, West Nile virus was first isolated in the West Nile province of Uganda in 1937. The earliest-recorded outbreaks of West Nile encephalitis occurred in Israel in 1951, 1954 and again in 1957. It reached the United States in 1999, when it was detected in four northeastern states. Seven people from New York died from the disease that year.

WNV was first identified in Pennsylvania (19 counties) in 2000. By 2003, WNV was found in all 67 Pennsylvania counties. The number of counties with “positives” varies from year to year. According to the state website, so far this year WNV has been detected in Centre, Blair, Cambria, Mifflin, Union, Lycoming and 28 other counties.

However, let us start at the beginning of this local story.

The phone rang on a Monday morning — it was my son-in-law, John, calling as he left for work. He reported seeing what appeared to be a sick crow on my property and gave me the location. I headed out, figuring that my chances of actually seeing this crow were slim.

Checking the tree branches where John had observed the perched crow, I saw something black lying on the ground — a dead crow. I examined the body — no obvious missing feathers, legs, neck, head and wings — all seemed to be normal.

Because I knew that crows are susceptible to West Nile virus, I called the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s north central regional office to learn what to do. The dispatcher there told me that the Game Commission is only interested in reports of numerous dead birds — not just one. He seemed to know nothing about testing for West Nile virus. My wife suggested contacting Centre County wildlife rehabilitator Robyn Grabowski.

Grabowski thought that West Nile virus could be a possibility. In a recent telephone interview, she provided more details about her experience with sick birds.

“Birds with West Nile virus show general signs of weakness — they often can’t stand or fly,” Grabowski explained. “Sometimes saliva is dripping from their mouths. Another sign is head tilt or a bird that flips backwards on its perch. We recently had a red-tailed hawk with West Nile virus. Its head tilted back, and it would fall off of its perch.

“In 2012, we had a real deluge — over 60 birds with WNV symptoms, mostly crows, red-tailed hawks, great-horned and barred owls and even a couple bald eagles.”

Following my July inquiry with Grabowski, she notified Bert Lavan, Centre County West Nile Virus coordinator.

Lavan contacted me and said he could come and test the crow the following morning. The sun rose, and unfortunately, the crow was gone — a scavenger had probably taken it during the night. Lavan’s mid-July trip was canceled.

Fast-forward to Aug. 24 — my wife, Gail, found a mourning dove just sitting in our lawn. At first, it seemed to be hiding from us, but we quickly discovered that it was weak and could not fly. Thinking of possible injury, we decided to take it to Grabowski. However, it died in Gail’s hands.

This time, we knew to contact Lavan right away, and I put the dead dove safely in our cool basement. Although Lavan told me that no record existed of a dove testing positive for WNV in Pennsylvania, he drove out from his Bellefonte office the following day to collect a sample.

Lavan swabbed the mouth and throat of the dead bird and sent the swab away to the state for testing. Much to his surprise, it came back positive. It was the first mourning dove to ever test positive for WNV in Pennsylvania.

There are more coincidences with this story — or maybe not. Apart from the dead crow in mid-July and the positive-testing dove, my daughter had fallen ill with fever and flu-like symptoms for 10 days at the end of July. As a result, Lavan came by last week to set two of his “dark-water” mosquito traps.

If you cannot see the fairly large traps, you can certainly smell them. According to Lavan, the dark, foul-smelling water (a special brew of his) is appealing to the species of mosquitoes that transmit WNV.

A former engineer, Lavan came into this profession through the side door after the Corning plant closed in 2003. From our initial meeting — a friendly man with a warm smile half-hidden behind a bushy mustache, firm handshake and business-like disposition — Lavan proceeded to educate me about WNV and its effects in the Keystone state.

“West Nile virus seemed to peak in Pennsylvania in 2003, with 1,400 dead birds testing positive and 237 documented human cases,” he said. “The birds really took a hit that year.”

Since then, the number of cases has dropped, according to Lavan. So far this summer, Centre County has two of only nine positives found in birds across the entire state — the dove on my property and a deceased red-tailed hawk found in neighboring Worth Township in May.

How you can help

If you find a dead bird with no obvious signs of trauma, call Lavan at 355-6791 or 404-4012 and report it. If you observe a bird showing the symptoms that Grabowski described, secure the bird by putting a towel over it and placing it in a box. Then, call Centre Wildlife Care at 692-0004.

Road closed to all traffic

Pennsylvania Game Commission Land Management Officer Eric Erdman announced a road closure for State Game Lands 333 off Shiloh Road in Benner Township. Starting the week of Sept. 12, the section of road that runs from the bridge at Spring Creek north to the Game Commission parking lot will be closed. The closure applies to any and all vehicles, bicycles and even foot travel from the start and until the end dates of road repairs. This Dirt and Gravel Road Program project will curb existing erosion and sedimentation issues near Spring Creek.

This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Bird tests positive for West Nile in Centre County."