Two Mosquito Abatement Districts?

Alameda County Vector Control Services District (ACVCSD) has been providing mosquito and vector control services to Albany since the voters approved our services back in 1984. Now, the Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District is in the process of annexing Albany into their district, and will add additional fees to property owners property taxes (see the notice at the end of this article for details).

Each city we work in has differing needs; some have difficult wildlife problems, in other Oriental and Turkistan cockroaches are a real problem, other cities have extensive homeless encampments that require Norway rat surveillance and control, as well as others who have tick, and hantavirus concerns. None of the above are significant problems in Albany, though mosquito surveillance and control is necessary due to the possibility of West Nile Virus (WNV), and concerns about introduces Aedes disease-transmitting mosquitoes migrating to Albany.

The Alameda County Vector Control Services District (ACVCSD) was voted into existence by Albany voters in 1984, and since then has conducted mosquito surveillance and control in Albany. This program grew over the years, especially when the threat of West Nile Virus was approaching California. In preparation for the initial introduction into California in 2003, a comprehensive WNV surveillance system was designed and implemented.

The mosquito surveillance program includes the trapping of adult blood-seeking female mosquitoes with CO2 baited Encephalitis Virus Surveillance (EVS) traps, set every two weeks from spring through fall. Captured mosquitoes are identified, counted, and tested by the District biologists for West Nile virus (WNV), Saint Lewis Encephalitis virus (SLEV), as well as Western Equine Encephalitis virus (WEEV) and reported to the California Vector-borne Disease Surveillance System, known as CalSurv. In 2018, we set a total of 97 trap-nights and 449 female mosquitoes were captured, or an average of about 4.6 per trap night1. EVS trap sites with detected mosquitoes are followed up with source search and larval treatments.

During 2018, staff biologists received 17 mosquito related service requests from Alameda County residents, though only 4 from Albany residents, which is 3.4% of the services requested by Albany residents for 2018. Staff biologists closely monitor the known mosquito breeding sites and suppress those mosquito larval populations before they mature into adult mosquitoes.

Three new permanent components were added to the program in 2015. The first was our in-house WNV dead bird testing program. Residents report dead birds to the State WNV hotline (1-877-968-2473) and one of the District staff biologists collect the reported dead birds and delivers them back to the District laboratory for genetic testing for WNV. Prior to the completion of our laboratory, we submitted our dead birds to the UC Davis Arbovirus Research and Training (DART) Laboratory for testing. In 2018 and 2019, no dead birds were reported to the District from the City of Albany.

The second component involves using sentinel chickens at two separate locations within the City of Albany. Blood samples from the sentinel chickens are collected bi-weekly and delivered to the State arbovirus laboratory (DART) for testing. In 2018, all sentinel chickens in the City of Albany tested negative for WNV, and all of 2019 tests are negative as well.

The final component is directed at the invasive mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. These invasive mosquitoes are capable of transmitting Zika virus, Dengue virus, and Chikungunya virus. We deployed 10 ovipositional traps to detect eggs laid by the female Aedes mosquitoes and no Aedes eggs were found in 2018, or in 2019.

In 2018, WNV activity in Alameda County consisted of twenty positive dead birds and fifteen positive mosquito pools. There were no human cases. As of December 19, 2019, one human West Nile Virus case was detected in Alameda County, but no positive mosquitoes or dead birds, though statewide, there have been 213 human cases of WNV, with 6 fatalities. The most cases (50) have been reported from Fresno County. None of these WNV positive birds, mosquitoes or human cases occurred in the City of Albany.

The notice below in italics is the text for a mailing the City of Albany proposes to mail to residents:

NOTICE OF PROTEST HEARING

PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF THE CITY OF ALBANY BY THE MOSQUITO ABATEMENT DISTRICT

The Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District has applied to annex the City of Albany to become part of the Mosquito Abatement District (MAD). If this application is approved, Albany property owners will have to pay a new fee for services from MAD. The Albany City Council has submitted a letter opposed to this annexation.

Albany has for many years received mosquito abatement services from Alameda County Vector Control, included in our overall package of services from Alameda County. The MAD seeks to take control of Albany’s mosquito abatement by ‘annexing’ Albany and obligating Albany property owners with an additional fee. The Albany City Council and Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson (District 5, which includes all of Albany) are opposed to this annexation.

The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCo) is the agency responsible for administering the protest hearing. LAFCo will hold a public hearing regarding the proposed annexation on: Wednesday, January 8, 2020 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m at the Alameda County Administration Building Board of Supervisors Chambers, 5th floor, 1221 Oak Street, Oakland.

We encourage you to please consider filing a protest.

How to File a Protest: To be considered valid, a protest must be written and filed by either an Albany landowner or a registered voter, and mailed to Alameda LAFCO 1221 Oak Street, Room 555, Oakland, CA 94612 or delivered to the LAFCO Executive Officer at the protest hearing. Each protest must be signed and dated, must state whether it is made by a landowner or a registered voter, and must include the name and address of the protestor and a street or parcel number identifying the location of the land. A registered voter’s protest must show the same name and address as was used when registering to vote. Only written protests that are received prior to the end of the hearing on January 8, 2020 will be accepted as timely. For additional information, please contact Alameda LAFCO Executive Officer Rachel Jones at (510) 271-5142 or rachel.jones@acgov.org.”