A bird infected with West Nile virus was confirmed in Gilroy
Friday, bringing the total number of infected birds in Santa Clara
County to eight.
A bird infected with West Nile virus was confirmed in Gilroy Friday, bringing the total number of infected birds in Santa Clara County to eight.
So far, there are no confirmed cases of the virus in San Benito County.
The bird was found in a resident’s yard on July 27 and is the first time West Nile virus has been found in the nearby city of Gilroy.
Five other bird cases were confirmed in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Campbell and San Jose Friday, including four hawks and a house finch.
Dana Schoeneman, 15, said she saw the bird acting lethargic in the front yard of her home near Gilroy High School.
“I found it in our grass and it was just sitting there,” she said. “The cat was watching it, but it was just sitting there and when I picked it up, it just fell over. It didn’t do anything.”
Schoeneman said she thought the bird was just stunned and would recover shortly. When it didn’t, she left it in a box for her older sister Amber to take to the Wildlife Education and Rehabilitation Center in Morgan Hill, which cares for orphaned, sick or injured wildlife.
“We have been prepared for the onset of West Nile for over a year now,” said Sue Howell, the center’s director. “And with all of our protocols, we have the symptoms to look for.”
Birds infected with West Nile virus go through three stages, Howell said, from being lethargic in phase one to exhibiting flu-like symptoms in phase two and nearing death in phase three. Birds found during phase one often may be treated.
“This bird was between (phases) two and three,” she said. “It wasn’t convulsing, but it was showing some of the advanced symptoms, and that’s why it was a big red flag for us.”
Howell said the bird, a house sparrow, needed to be euthanized and was delivered to the county’s Vector Control District, responsible for preventing and tracking West Nile virus, within 90 minutes of its death.
The Center for Vector-borne Diseases at U.C. Davis confirmed the bird was infected.
The first confirmed case of West Nile virus in Santa Clara County came late last month, when a crow found in East San Jose tested positive.
West Nile virus, first found in the United States in 1999, is spread by mosquitoes. It is transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of an infected mosquito and cannot be spread from person to person. No infected mosquitoes have been found in Santa Clara or San Bentio Counties.
No human or horse cases of West Nile have been reported in either county, although to date, 103 human cases have been reported in California, with two fatalities.
The virus is rarely fatal in humans and only causes West Nile fever in an estimated 20 percent of cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
