State officials say southwestern Connecticut is seeing high numbers of mosquitoes carrying the West Nile virus way ahead of its peak season.

Officials from Greenwich to New Haven say the number of mosquitoes testing positive for the virus is alarming. They say there has only been one human case so far this year, but that those numbers could rise if the current trend continues.

?We?ve been monitoring West Nile virus since 1999 when it first appeared,? says Dr. Theodore Anbreadis, of the Mosquito Research Laboratory. ?In our 10 years of trapping and testing, I have never seen this rapid a building up of the virus.?

Officials also say they have found mosquitoes that normally bite humans are carrying West Nile as well. In the past, mosquitoes that feed on birds were the only ones that carried the virus.