West Nile veterinary cases ebb lower

Atlanta

-- Cumulative veterinary cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) are down to 203 nationwide.

While the 2008 data is still provisional as of late December, the cumulative veterinary case reports are half of the 507 documented in 2007, CDC reports. More than 1,000 veterinary cases were reported in 2006.

WNV was first isolated in 1937, but animal and human infections were not documented until a 1999 outbreak in New York City.