STANTON, MICH. (AP) -- Michigan officials say a case of West Nile virus has been confirmed in a horse and they're urging people to take steps so humans and horses don't get mosquito bites.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Michigan State University Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health announced Wednesday that they confirmed the case in a 5-year-old Montcalm County horse. They say the horse is getting treatment.

It's the first such case in a horse this year. Cases previously have been confirmed in people, birds and mosquito pools. No human deaths have been reported in Michigan this year.

Officials have said an unusually warm spring encouraged the early hatching of mosquitoes, which transmit the virus.

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