California Plucks a First Line of Defense Against West Nile
State health officials Tuesday vowed to remain on the alert for the deadly West Nile virus with their own version of an early warning system--chickens.
Scattered in about 200 locations around the state, 2,000 “sentinel chickens” are the first line of defense against the mosquito-borne disease. Every two weeks, health workers test blood samples from the chickens, looking for the telltale antibodies that are a sign of infection by disease-carrying mosquitoes.
Kevin Reilly of the California Department of Health Services said the virus is likely to arrive in the state within the next two years and that early detection is the best way to protect the public.
“It’s not a question of if it’s going to show up in California but when,” Reilly said. “But we’re lucky. In California, we’ve had 80-plus years of mosquito control.”
Most of the time the virus produces only severe flu-like symptoms, but in rare cases it leads to life-threatening swelling of the brain.
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