The years of the chicken will give way to the summer of the swatter as Bergen County prepares for a third season of fighting the mosquito-borne West Nile virus, officials said Wednesday. On a more serious note, Schuber said the county plans less of the controversial area-wide spraying of adult mosquitoes this summer. Instead, the county will increase surveillance and control of breeding areas.
Officials also hope to do a better job of communicating with the public.
Most of the 21 counties in New Jersey, including Bergen, have decided not to bring back the so-called sentinel chickens that were supposed to detect the presence of infected mosquitoes, said Peter Pluchino, director of mosquito control in Bergen County. The chickens, which were placed outdoors in cages and were supposed to produce antibodies in their blood when infected with the virus, were ineffective as an early warning system, Pluchino said. Long before the chickens signaled West Nile in the region, people had already been reported ill. Meanwhile, Morris County will intensify its mosquito surveillance this year, and focus more on local spraying, rather than broad-based insecticide use, Marc Slaff, superintendent of mosquito control, said Wednesday. West Nile killed seven people in New York and sickened dozens of others there in 1999, when it first appeared in North America after traveling from Africa and the Middle East.