Attractiveness of chickens and bobwhite quail for Culex nigripalpus.

An experiment to determine if wild Culex nigripalpus preferentially enter lard-can traps baited with chickens or bobwhite quail was conducted. A strong preference for the chicken-baited trap was observed. Further development of transmission models for St. Louis encephalitis virus in southern Florida should consider increased biting rates on sentinel chickens and the consequences for the interpretation of sentinel seroconversion data.