Birds to Be Monitored for Mosquito Diseases
Public health workers will monitor birds in search of diseases transmitted by mosquitoes.
Sentinel chickens are put out in many California counties and are regularly tested for diseases, such as West Nile virus, St. Louis encephalitis and Western equine encephalomyelitis. There have been no reports of the diseases this year.
“If West Nile gets here, our sentinel system is going to know about it very quickly,” said epidemiologist William C. Reeves, a former dean of the School of Public Health at UC Berkeley.
West Nile virus is carried by wild birds, which can be bitten by mosquitoes and later transmitted to humans. The disease can be mild, but in some cases has caused a fatal inflammation of the brain and spinal cord.
The first American case of West Nile virus was seen in New York in 1999. Since then, it has been detected as far north as New Hampshire and as far south as North Carolina.
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