Every year, the ISU Medical Entomology Research Laboratory, in a cooperative project with the Iowa Department of Public Health and the University Hygienic Lab (Iowa City, IA), monitors mosquito populations and mosquito-borne disease in the state of Iowa. The 2007 surveillance season extended from May until October. Mosquito population data for 2007 (and all other years since the inception of the surveillance program) can be viewed on our new website, www.iowa-mosquito.net. The activity of West Nile virus (WNV), the most significant mosquito-borne virus in Iowa, for 2007 and previous years is shown below in a table indicating the number of positive cases of humans, sentinel chickens, horses, and wild mosquitoes. Of the 30 human cases of WNV this year, 2 of them resulted in death. Also found WNV-positive were 18 sentinel chickens and 10 horses. Of the 289 pools of mosquitoes that were tested, 5 pools were WNV-positive.

To see where in the state these cases occurred, please see the Iowa Department of Health map summarizing 2007 WNV activity at http://www.idph.state.ia.us/adper/common/pdf/wnv/wnv_map_2007.pdf.