TUCKAHOE,
N.J. (Reuters) - The West Nile virus has been blamed for the death
of a horse in rural southern New Jersey, health officials said
on Tuesday.
The 6-year-old
thoroughbred gelding in Cape May County, near the Atlantic coast,
developed a high fever and became aggressive before being euthanized
Aug. 30.
Health officials
believed the horse contracted the disease after being bitten by
an infected mosquito.
The animal
was the first horse in New Jersey to contract the West Nile virus,
which has killed nearly 500 birds in mainly northern sections
of the state.
Last week,
officials reported the state's first human West Nile virus victim,
a 43-year-old Jersey City man who was hospitalized Aug. 10 and
went home a day later.
Twenty-five
horses on Long Island were diagnosed with the disease last year.
The latest report from New Jersey brought the number of equine
cases nationwide this year to three, including one in New York
and another in Rhode Island.
The virus,
which can cause deadly encephalitis or meningitis in people, has
infected seven New York City residents this year so far and has
been found in birds from New Jersey to Massachusetts.
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