KALAMAZOO (WKZO-AM/FM) — Even though the Zika Virus has not appeared north of Florida and Texas, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality has offered grants to 11 Michigan counties to be on the lookout for the mosquito that transmits the disease.
Kalamazoo County Health Director Jim Rutherford said his $20,000 grant will make it possible to buy some equipment and hire an intern to empty traps, and identify the skeeters.
If they find a member of the Aedes mosquito family, he says they will bagged and tagged and shipped off to a state lab for testing to determine if it is carrying the virus.
Rutherford said they will also spend some of the money on an education program, that could also include information about EEE and West Nile, which are two mosquito bourne diseases that are transmitted here by mosquito.
Currently the northern range of the particular mosquito that transmits Zika and other diseases is in Indiana and Ohio, but global warming could make it possible for the speicies to move further north.
