Manager, Entomology Dept Manatee County Mosquito Control District, Florida, United States
Abstract: Numerous vector control entities within the US continue to rely on sentinel chickens as integral to their arbovirus surveillance programs. Manatee County Mosquito Control District (MCMCD) has continually operated a sentinel chicken program since 1978. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) poses a real threat to a sentinel chicken program given an entire flock will need to be culled in the instance of infection. Furthermore, a typical sentinel coop setting (i.e. a residential backyard) would need to be quarantined for at least 120 days per federal and/or state animal health official requirements before a flock could be re-introduced, disrupting a program’s arbovirus detection for that specific location for the duration. In 2022, HPAI was documented in an unprecedented quantity and diversity of wildlife in North America, and Florida in particular, which prompted MCMCD to examine its coop construction design, husbandry and staff work practices towards reducing risk of sentinel bird exposure to HPAI. The use of sentinel animals, in exposing them to mosquitoes within representative habitats of a given area, means that they can never be truly biosecure. However, any action taken to improve biosecurity not only better protects sentinel birds from HPAI, but any of a multitude of diseases which can negatively impact a sentinel program and by extension arbovirus surveillance capability.
