The positive samples were all collected July 24, and positive test results were confirmed the next day. Monitoring sites operated by Will County Environmental Health have now generated six West Nile-positive results this summer. A blue jay collected in Wilmington and a robin taken from Plainfield also tested positive.
Will is one of at least 26 Illinois counties to report West Nile activity this summer, with the majority of confirmations in Chicagoland. Through July 24, 315 of the state's 375 West Nile-positive mosquito samples, and nine of 21 West Nile-positive birds from Illinois were collected from Cook or DuPage counties. Both of the state's human West Nile cases identified so far, both females, live in suburban Cook County.
The abnormally hot and dry weather experienced this summer has created ideal conditions for the Culex pipiens mosquitoes most often implicated in human West Nile transmission, the Will County Health Department said.
