For the first time ever in Hampshire and Hampden Counties, the state of Massachusetts is spraying to prevent the mosquito-borne illness known as EEE.
The state Department of Public Health will conduct aerial spraying in Brimfield, Palmer and Ware this week.
Joshua Miller, the health director for the Palmer Board of Health, said it's important that residents still take precautions to keep from being bitten.
"The goal of the spraying is to really try to knock the numbers down, but it's not going to be able to eliminate the risk in its entirety," he said.
Catherine Brown, the state epidemiologist, said the department decided to act after a horse was diagnosed with Eastern Equine Encephalitis — or EEE — in nearby Brookfield.
"And then we did additional mosquito trapping out in that area, and have identified EEE-infected mosquitoes of the kind that can transmit the virus to people," Brown said.
Nine communities in Worcester County will also be sprayed.
Brown said that while most human cases of EEE usually occur in August and September, there has been one case in late October. She said the risk remains until the first hard frost, meaning the temperature goes below 28 degrees for at least three hours.
According to the CDC, between 2009 and 2018, only the state of Florida had more cases of EEE than Massachusetts.
"That's because of the concentration of the type of habitat that we have in southeastern Massachusetts, which really sort of generates EEE activity and then allows it to be kind of transferred to other parts of the state," Brown said.
The state said the insecticide that will be sprayed is Anvil 10+10. A primary ingredient is Sumithrin, which the EPA said "can be used for public health mosquito control programs without posing unreasonable risks to human health when applied according to the label."
State works to avoid another false alarm
The state Department of Public Health previously said the town of Granby was at critical risk for EEE.
That's because a horse whose owner lived in Granby tested positive. But according to The Daily Hampshire Gazette, the animal was actually stabled in Connecticut.
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