By Linda Taaffe

Local residents may be left on their own to dispose of dead birds possibly infected with the West Nile Virus if the disease continues to spread and tap county resources, Santa Clara County Vector Control District officials warned last week during a briefing on how to handle dead birds.

Since vector control discovered eight birds infected with the virus in five areas of the county earlier this month, the district has received up to 50 reports a day about dead birds.

Vector control has been testing dead birds in order to track the location and extent of the virus. County officials have been limiting testing to crows, raptors, sparrows and finches that have been dead less than 48 hours.

Once the virus firmly establishes itself in every part of the county, the vector control district will focus all its energy toward the real threat, the mosquito, officials said.

“Residents must understand that time and manpower constraints are an issue,” said community resource specialist Kris Costa. “We try to respond to all the dead bird calls where the birds are the particular species we are looking for and still testable. But sometimes, it just isn’t possible.”

Santa Clara County’s environmental health, vector control and public health agencies have been preparing for the mosquito-borne illness since September 2002, when the state’s first human case was reported in Southern California. The disease may be transmitted to animals and humans through mosquitoes infected from birds, experts say.

Until this month, there had been only one report of an infected bird in the county this year. Vector control confirmed seven more cases Aug. 6 from birds found throughout the county, including Sunnyvale, the city of Santa Clara, Campbell, Gilroy and San Jose. Four Cooper’s hawks, two house finches and a crow tested positive for the disease.

There have been no human cases or infected mosquitoes found in Santa Clara County or surrounding counties, officials said last week. Human cases reported statewide have increased from three last year to 169 this year, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control. Five deaths have been reported in California by the CDC this year.

The illness was first detected in the United States in 1999 in New York City and had been reported in 28 states by the end of 2001. It has continued to move westward.

Russ Parman, assistant manager for vector control, said large-scale aerial spraying for mosquitoes has never been seen as a viable option in Santa Clara County.