DEM detects EEE in Westerly; Central Falls cancels dance, moves sports indoors – The Providence Journal

WESTERLY — A six-month-old Belgian horse, too young to be vaccinated, is dead after contracting EEE, and a mosquito infected with the virus was identified in a Westerly sample, the state’s third EEE-positive sample this summer, the R.I. Department of Environmental Management reported Thursday.

The EEE-positive mosquito was part of a sampling trapped Aug. 19 at Chapman Swamp in Westerly, the news release said. Every week during the summer, the DEM tests mosquitoes from around the state. Two samples collected Aug. 15, both from Central Falls, have tested positive for EEE.

Even though Westerly has treated the swamp with a larvicide every April since EEE was first detected there in 1996, mosquitoes carrying the virus were found in 2003, 2013, and 2016.

DEM spokesman Mike Healey said the foal’s owners noticed abnormal behavior on Aug. 23 and euthanized it the next day, after Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine gave it a poor prognosis. They did not know whether it had EEE, West Nile or rabies, but the lab results, which came in Wednesday, showed EEE, Healey said.

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As a precaution against people being bitten by mosquitoes, Central Falls has canceled one outdoor event and moved others indoors, Mayor James A. Diossa said Thursday.

Salsa Night on Friday was canceled. Friday evening and Saturday morning games in the RJH Summer Basketball League were moved indoors to Central Falls High School. Saturday’s Central Falls Mundialito Soccer League play will be indoors at Calcutt Middle School from 4 to 9 p.m.

The R.I. Department of Health urges everyone to take precautions. To learn how, visit http://www.health.ri.gov/mosquito.

— dnaylor@providencejournal.com

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