This year, there were 20 cases of EEE reported in horses across about a dozen New York counties. The state has never had so many cases, nor in so many counties, in a single year, Backenson said.

Richard Pawulski, 49, first contracted the disease, Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), while doing yard work in his wooded, Colchester, CT backyard in August 2019, the New York Post reports.

This year, there were 20 cases of EEE reported in horses across about a dozen New York counties. The state has never had so many cases, nor in so many counties, in a single year, Backenson said.