It appears that Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) has worked it's way up from it's original case in Louisiana to Massachusetts so the next stop could be Quebec or Ontario or the Maritime provinces. Horse owners get your horses vaccinated. History, and the work by Sellers, tells us that it always travels north and we don't get it unless they have it in the states neighbouring us.
EEE could be at its highest local level in four years [MA] By Alice C. Elwell GateHouse News Service Taunton Gazette July 24, 2010 MIDDLEBORO - The death of a prize horse from Eastern equine encephalitis, along with the discovery of several mosquito samples that tested positive for the disease, has led state and public health officials to warn that this season may be a bad one for the blood-borne illness.
State and local health officials are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss strategies to control the disease, which stands to reach its highest local level in four years. "We are seeing early indicators that lead us to believe this may be a bad EEE year," Department of Public Health State Epidemiologist Alfred DeMaria said.
Those indicators include the death Wednesday of a stallion in Middleboro, the discovery this week of EEE-positive mosquito pools in Middleboro, Rochester and Mattapoisett, and earlier discoveries of infected samples in Halifax and on the Middleboro-Lakeville border.
Those circumstances, DeMaria said, are similar to the conditions of the summer of 2006, when five people in Massachusetts became ill with EEE. Click here for the full text.