As the fight to avoid a mosquito bite ramps up, the SA Health sentinel chicken program is proving to be a promising initiative to detect mosquito viruses.
There are 10 sentinel chicken flocks positioned from Meningie to Paringa, with supplemented flocks at Meningie, Murray Bridge, Mannum, Swan Reach, Qualco, Loxton, Paringa, Two Wells, Clare Valley and Lameroo.
SA Health Director of Health Protection Michaela Hobby said the program had been a key element to protecting people and animals from the mosquito borne viruses.
"Our mighty sentinel chickens and their host families play a very important public health role in early detection and the monitoring of mosquito borne diseases," she said.
"There's no doubt that being able to inform South Australians about the risk from mosquitos in their communities has had a positive impact in getting more people to protect themselves, their animals and their loved ones this mosquito season."
Ms Hobby said recent results had shown South Australians had remained vigilant and protected themselves against mosquito viruses.
"While we have seen widespread mosquito activity this season, there have been no human reported cases of JEV or MVEV and only 106 cases of Ross River virus," she said.
"This indicates that the community has been vigilant in protecting themselves and their families from mosquito bites and taken the early detections from our chicken flocks seriously."
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The Thompson family joined the sentinel chicken program in August 2021 and, since having their first flock of sentinel chickens dropped off at their house in Qualco by the Fight the Bite team, have remained part of the program.
Amy Thompson said she and her family had loved being part of the program and had grown attached to the chickens.
"We absolutely love doing it, we love hosting the chickens and there's lots of amazing experiences that come with having chickens," she said.
Since the program started, veterinarians and veterinary nurses had been testing the chickens for mosquito borne viruses, by taking a small sample of blood from a vein under the wing of the chicken.
After having no chickens test positive to a mosquito virus in the 2021-22 season, Mrs Thompson said they had one chicken test positive to MVEV in the 2022-23 season.
"It was just a matter I time, I assumed there were mosquito-borne viruses within the area," she said.
"Apparently our coop was one of the last ones to get a positive detection, so we were always prepared that it was only a matter of time."
Following their enjoyable experience in the program, so far, Mrs Thompson said her family had planned to get a new flock of chickens this August.
"We will get another five chickens at the start of the next season and I've decided I want to keep this flock," she said.
"At the moment I'm dreaming up this extravagant plan for a chicken retirement village under the fruit trees."
During the 2021-22 mosquito season there were nine positive detections of MVEV and seven detections of the Japanese encephalitis virus from the sentinel chicken program.
Since the program began in 2011, the sentinel chickens in SA have tested positive to MVEV three times - with the first two times having occurred in autumn 2019-20 and summer of 2020-21.
There have been a number of Serological tests undertaken during the 2022-23 season, with fortnightly tests having been undertaken from September to November and weekly tests from November to April, with nine detections of MVEV and two detections of West Nile virus - Kunjin variant having been recorded.
The mosquito viruses have also been shown to not be limited to the River Murray region, with MVEV and WNV/KUN having been detected in the newly-established flock based in the Clare Valley.
