Live Roundups Editor's Desk Insights Executive Ops Weather About 🔍
Home › Health › US scientists turn to chickens to sound the alarm as...
Health

US scientists turn to chickens to sound the alarm as West Nile cases rise

The Guardian World Saturday 12 September 2026, 11:00 UTC By Melody Schreiber 1 min read
Key Points

Chickens – which can test positive for viruses but cannot spread them – an ideal early warning system for mosquito-borne diseaseThe start of West Nile virus transmission began unusually early in some US states, with the most cases in early summer since 2004, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned in July – so Delaware turned to chickens. “They kind of are the proverbial canary in the coal mine,” said Tom Moran, head of the mosquito control section at the Delaware...

Chickens – which can test positive for viruses but cannot spread them – an ideal early warning system for mosquito-borne disease

The start of West Nile virus transmission began unusually early in some US states, with the most cases in early summer since 2004, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned in July – so Delaware turned to chickens.

“They kind of are the proverbial canary in the coal mine,” said Tom Moran, head of the mosquito control section at the Delaware department of natural resources and environmental control.

Continue reading...
US (LOCATION) West Nile (LOCATION) the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ORG) CDC (ORG) Delaware (LOCATION) Tom Moran (PERSON)
Originally published by The Guardian World Read original →

Related Stories

AI trained to 'think' like human pathologists may be better at spotting cancer

AI trained to 'think' like human pathologists may be better at spotting cancer Researchers trained AI on how expert pathologists look for signs of cancer in patient samples, improving the algorithm's effectiveness. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that hunt for cancer may do a better job when they approach the analysis as if they were a human pathologist, a new study suggests. Many AI systems analyze preselected regions of a tissue sample, or they split a whole pathology slide into...

Live Science 7m ago

Uganda lays 'boy king' Oyo to rest amid succession row

Uganda lays 'boy king' Oyo to rest amid succession row September 12, 2026Uganda has concluded a nine-day period of mourning for King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV, with a funeral for the Tooro Kingdom's late monarch due to take place in the western city of Fort Portal on Saturday. Oyo, who once held the unofficial title of the world's youngest king, ascended the throne as a young child in 1995 and died last month of cancer aged just 34, with his death prompting a bitter succession...

Deutsche Welle 26m ago

EasyJet passengers evacuated as fire erupts on busy plane and airport shuts down

EasyJet passengers evacuated as fire erupts on busy plane and airport shuts down EasyJet flight U23905 was about to leave Milan Malpensa Airport to go to Prague in the Czech Republic when smoke started to fill the cabin Passengers on an EasyJet flight were evacuated and one of Italy's busiest airports was shut after a power bank burst into flames inside the plane. Smoke filled the cabin of the Airbus A320 while the aircraft was on the taxiway, with the device catching fire in an overhead...

Daily Mirror 50m ago

We know how to prevent black lung, so why are workers still dying?

Sufferers of black lung and silicosis are getting younger as Trump and the coal mining industry push back on protections Silicosis is one of the oldest workplace hazards and public health experts have known for decades how to prevent it. Yet a new wave of workers, from Appalachian coalminers to Latino countertop fabrication workers, are developing and dying from the disease as industry fights new protections and regulators fail to defend the rules that could protect them. John Robinson’s...

The Guardian Health 1h ago