Atten-hut: Sentinel Chickens Prevent Disease Spread

Atten-hut: Sentinel Chickens Prevent Disease Spread

This may be news to many, but chickens play a crucial role in Orange County Mosquito Control's efforts to protect residents and animals from diseases such as West Nile Virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis and St. Louis Encephalitis.

They're called "Sentinel Chickens" because of a unique characteristic they possess regarding mosquito-borne viruses, known as arboviruses, - a warning signal to Mosquito Control. Manager for Orange County Mosquito Control Steve Harrison says the chickens are considered a "dead-end" host.

"Once they become infected with an arbovirus from a mosquito bite, they will develop an immune response that is only detected in a blood test," Harrison said. "However, they do not appear sick and do not replicate the virus enough to pass it along to other animals or humans."

The chickens are kept in strategically placed coops around Orange County. Mosquito Control staff members visit each location several times a week to clean the coops, provide food and water, and take small blood samples once a week to send to the Florida Department of Health's Bureau of Public Health Laboratories. The samples are analyzed, and the results are reported weekly.

If a chicken tests positive for a virus, it tells Mosquito Control where a virus is present in the county. This allows them to proactively prevent the virus from spreading by spraying areas within Orange County where the virus activity is the highest. The team can focus control measures on the specific types of mosquitoes that could be carrying the detected arbovirus.

"The chickens stay in the program for two seasons because we conduct year-round arbovirus monitoring," Harrison said. "After that, they're sent to a local farm to spend the rest of their lives with other chickens. If a chicken in one of our coops tests positive for an arbovirus, they will be removed and sent to a local farm where they get to retire with all the other chickens on the farm."

Harrison added the chickens spend their days eating, drinking water, preening and laying eggs. They are not known to pass arboviruses onto their eggs, but they do pass arbovirus antibodies onto their eggs, which provides immune support for their chicks.

For more information, visit Orange County Mosquito Control.