The first mosquitoes of 2013 confirmed to be carrying the West Nile virus have been found in Oklahoma.
The Tulsa County Health Department said Thursday that a sampling of mosquitoes in Tulsa County have tested positive for the potentially deadly virus.
State health officials say there have been no confirmed cases of the virus in humans this year. There were a record 178 cases and 15 deaths in 2012.
The health department says the West Nile virus tends to be cyclical in which a year of increased cases is often followed by one or more years of few cases of the virus.
The previous record was in 2007 with 98 cases and nine deaths. That was followed by a total of 20 cases and one death from 2008 through 2011.