York Region Acting Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Hanif Kassam, has announced that a dead crow has undergone testing and is presumed to be positive for West Nile virus (WNV ). The crow was found in the town of Newmarket. The bird is the first presumed WNV-positive bird reported in the York Region of Ontario, and the first in Canada this year.

Equine cases haven’t been reported in Canada this year, but typically do not turn up until late summer. The first 2003 equine case in the United States was detected in early April in Florida. The virus has been circulating in the North American equine population since 1999, its first appearance in the Western Hemisphere