Population health teams and sentinel chickens help fight the bite across the Goldfields

Our public health workforce recently got to grips with how to draw blood samples from sentinel chickens as part of WA Health’s routine flavivirus surveillance.

Sentinel chickens play a crucial role in monitoring and detecting the presence of flaviviruses spread by mosquito.

They serve as an early warning system for public health teams and help track the spread of disease.

Metropolitan based Senior Scientific Officer Environmental Health Craig Brockway travelled to the Goldfields to train four members of our Public Health team.

Clinical Nurse Manager Public Health Rebecca Caporn said it was a great training opportunity for staff and a win for our country communities.

“Having local staff trained to collect samples from our flock of sentinel chickens means we are more self-sufficiently equipped to monitor mosquito-borne viruses,” Rebecca said.

“Early detection is essential and having a local team enables regularly testing- mitigating the risks as soon as possible and ensuring we have adequate surveillance across the Goldfields.”  

Rebecca also said it was important we thank WA Health in working with us to achieve common goals.

“Healthcare across the regions is rarely done in isolation and we would like to acknowledge the Entomology team at the Department of Health for enabling our regional staff to play their part in helping to protect our country communities,” Rebecca said.

“In particular, Craig, who took time away from his duties in the city to come out east and share his knowledge.

“The team is looking forward to putting their new skills into practice.”

As part of the flavivirus surveillance program, blood samples are safely and humanely drawn from the flock every month and sent to local PathWest teams for testing.