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American Morning

Florida Official Discusses Spraying for Mosquitoes Following Human West Nile Virus Affliction

Aired July 25, 2001 - 11:38   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going talk with Steven Rutz. He's on the phone from Tallahassee. He is director of the state's Division of Agriculture and Environmental Services.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us, Steve.

STEVEN RUTZ, AGRICULTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES: Good morning.

KAGAN: I understand, weather permitting, you have a project that is ready to go trying to attack mosquitoes that might be carrying the West Nile virus?

RUTZ: That's correct. We have a 14-county area that is currently under medical alert, in the central-north Florida area. We're hoping to get treatment started on the first county this evening. We actually wanted to start last night, but the rain prevented us from doing so.

KAGAN: We can appreciate that. That rain spread all the way up here, to Atlanta.

Do you even know what kind of mosquitoes you are trying to kill?

RUTZ: We haven't specifically identified which mosquito or mosquitoes are the most likely vectors of West Nile at this point. That research is ongoing. There are a number of suspect mosquitoes that we think are most likely part of the problem. What we're doing at this point in time, until we have more definitive research, is we're focusing on general mosquito population suppression. We have very, very high counts right now because of the rainfall we've had.

KAGAN: What exactly are you going to spray, and how dangerous is it to the human population and to animals?

RUTZ: We're using a chemical that's commonly known by the name of Dibrome, which has a very long history of use by mosquito control districts in state of Florida and around the country. It's an organophosphate pesticide, but it's used at very, very low dosages. We apply about two-thirds of a fluid ounce per acre, which, for comparative purposes, if you wanted to think about it, it would be like taking a sip out of a can of Coke and trying to spread it on 170,000 slices of bread. It's a very, very small dosage. At those dosages, we're only affecting the mosquitoes.

The other thing that we're doing is we're putting a very, very fine aerosol spray in the air so that it stays suspended in the air column so that those very tiny droplets will, hopefully, come in contact with the mosquitoes.

KAGAN: Steve, whereas West Nile can be a very dangerous virus to get -- it can kill people -- only one person in the entire state of Florida has been diagnosed with this. Is this overkill, to spray 14 counties just because one man has gotten sick?

RUTZ: First of all, I need to point out that we're still working with the county governments. We don't want to do any control work that they don't want us to do.

Secondly, it's important to understand that we are not only looking at West Nile virus, but we have had a fairly high incidence of eastern equine encephalitis in these same areas.

So virus activity in the wild bird population has been pretty pronounced. We are not just dealing with a response to a human case, but we are trying to prevent those human cases from occurring.

KAGAN: And just really quickly, as we say goodbye, if you are able to start spraying tonight, how long should it take for that spray to become effective?

RUTZ: Actually, the spray works very quickly, in terms of how rapidly it works on the mosquitoes. Within a few moments of the material coming in contact, it will knock them out of the air.

KAGAN: Steven Rutz with the Division of Agriculture and Environmental Services in Florida. Thanks for joining us with that information.

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