Historical report preserved from an archived 2008 WKRG story.
A Baldwin County mosquito-monitoring chicken in Orange Beach tested positive for Eastern equine encephalitis in 2008, according to an archived WKRG report.
Health workers used chickens to monitor mosquito-borne viruses because the birds were immune to the diseases. The report said EEE could be transmitted to people and horses by mosquitoes, and that horses had vaccines while no human vaccine was available at the time.
The Baldwin County Health Department said it had not detected mosquito-borne viruses in people in the county at that point. This article records a 2008 health update and is not current medical guidance.