Chickens play a big role in Mosquito Control’s function to monitor for mosquito-borne viruses called
arbovirus, which could be transmitted to people from the bite of an infected mosquito. At Orange County
Mosquito Control, these chickens are known as Sentinel Chickens, and they serve a vital role in helping
to protect both residents and visitors of the county by monitoring for arboviruses that could be
transmitted to people from the bite of a mosquito. The Sentinel Chicken program is a statewide arbovirus
monitoring program done in partnership between the Florida Department of Health and local mosquito
control programs like Orange County Mosquito Control.
Orange County Mosquito Control maintains several Sentinel Chicken coops strategically located throughout
Orange County. Samples are collected on a weekly basis throughout the year from these coops and sent to
the Florida Department of Health for testing for the presence of various arboviruses like West Nile
Virus, Eastern Equine Encephalitis Virus, St. Louis Encephalitis Virus, and Highlands J Virus.
The reason Sentinel Chickens are used for this process is because chickens are a “dead-end host,” in that
they do not replicate enough arbovirus in their bloodstream to become a public health threat, and they
do not succumb to the infection. Once a Sentinel Chicken tests positive, the virus can be detected but
does not spread beyond that point. The chicken is then retired from the program and sent to a local farm
where it lives out the rest of its life with other chickens.
If any test results show the presence, or antibodies of an arbovirus, then the results alert Mosquito
Control that an arbovirus is circulating within Orange County’s mosquito population. The Mosquito
Control team will respond to this increased threat by increasing control measures in at-risk areas in
the county in order to help lower the number of mosquitoes, which could spread arbovirus. The Sentinel
Chickens serve a vital role in helping the Mosquito Control team monitor for mosquito-borne diseases and
lower the risk of arbovirus transmission to people and animals within Orange County.