Does anyone have info re. chickens and West Nile Virus?

[Fluffy Chick 15]

Soon-to-be chicken owner, but have had horses all my life, which is why I'm familiar with West Nile. (It is almost always fatal to horsed). We vacc. our horses every year. But it occurred to me, that we have "sentinel" chickens placed down by the lake here in our county to monitor this virus. I guess because the mosquitos are particularly heaavy there. We have a lot of skitos on our property in the summer, they are very attracted to our water troughs and swimming pool. Anyway, do I need to worry about chickens becoming infected with West Nile? And is it fatal to them? Thanks for any info.!

 

[mboreham1]

no idea, i will bump it to try and get others in on this. I would not want to have to deet my chickens all year long.......!

 

[A.T. Hagan]

West Nile Encephalitis and Poultry - Pennsylvania
http://pubs.cas.psu.edu/FreePubs/pdfs/un192.pdf

Pathogenicity of West Nile virus in chickens.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11007013

West Nile virus not a threat among chickens
http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2009/07/west_nile_virus_wnv_is_1.html

.....Alan.

 

[hoosier]

I was told that my chickens can get WNV, but will not show any signs. Their eggs would be safe.
My horse died from complications of WNV several years ago. He was the first case in our area. Lucky me.

 

[fluffychicksmomma]

Thanks Alan, good info. Sorry hoosier, that really sucks.

I worry about out horses. We give them the vacc., but just last year our vet said the vacc. does not insure they won't get it. Kinda makes me wonder why we are paying $125 each year to buy the vaccs. I kinda thought that was the whole point.

 

[fluffychicksmomma]

Just realized, I should explain. I'm fluffy chick 15's mom, hence my user name. I accidentally first posted this question under her user name. So we are the same family, mom and daughter doing the chicken thing with dad who tries his best to tolerate us!