Each portable poultry skyscraper had seven levels packed with white-feathered occupants. Every white leghorn poult, fresh from an Elberta farm, waited to learn the location of its summer job - watching for West Nile virus.
Soon after the chickens arrived at the Provo Department of Public Works, mosquito control staffers from across the state descended on the poultry trailer. These chickens serve as the early-warning system for the mosquito-borne virus that can be deadly to humans.
As teams moved the young hens into different cages for transport across Utah, the fowl became agitated and wings flapped, feathers flew and squawks rang out.
"You only want 10 in each cage," called out Sammie Dickson as he gripped the legs of two chickens destined for a 1950s-era wooden crate. Dickson, head of the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District, shuffled chickens around in the crate to double-check the head count.
Even though West Nile virus has been lurking in Utah since 1999, these sentinel chickens still serve a useful purpose, said Robert Mower, head of the Utah County Division of Mosquito Abatement.
West Nile virus appears in chickens and mosquitoes weeks before the first human cases, giving public health officials time to step up public awareness campaigns, said Joseph Miner, executive director of the Utah County Health Department.
The birds help public health officials know areas where humans may soon be at risk for the virus, Miner said.
"This is only part of our monitoring system," he explained while waiting for the flocks.
Teams also trap mosquitoes to look for the virus before it begins infecting humans.
Chickens are selected for West Nile duty because they do not become sick from the virus, though they do develop signs of infection in their blood. Mosquito control teams bleed the birds weekly to detect when the virus moves into an area.
Each mosquito abatement district takes several flocks that are sent to secret, mosquito-rich locations.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed 158 human cases of West Nile virus, including five deaths, in Utah in 2006, which was the state's worst brush with the disease to date.
glavine@sltrib.com
