In days gone by, many miners lives were saved by the use of canaries to
detect lethal gases while working underground. This principle is being
re-awakened in a suggestion by Larry Glickman, professor of epidemiology and
environmental medicine at the Purdue University School of Veterinary
Medicine, that animals could be the first creatures to alert America to a
bioterrorist attack.

In a joint project, called the Veterinary Medical Data-Surveillance of
Syndromes (VMD-SOS), with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Purdue has begun a study using a national pet health database to assess
whether dogs and cats can be useful sentinels to provide early warning of
bioterrorist attacks. "We are developing analytical techniques that, when
used in a timely way, could signal a terrorist attack," says Glickman. "This
approach is intended to complement, not replace, human medical record-based
surveillance systems currently under development and give practicing
veterinarians a key role in the war on terrorism."
"With the right programming we could be alerted to an anthrax or plague
outbreak" Glickman says.

In a related development, according to Time magazine, U.S. marines and
soldiers will drive into battle in Iraq with caged chickens on top of their
Hum-Vees. The chickens will be used to detect small traces of poisonous
gases or chemical agents and warn troops to put on their gas masks. They
also have non-animal devices to detect bioterrorist weapons but these could
clog up with debris, sand or pollution from, for example, torched or
blown-up oil installations. "A sky full of oil can mask some chemicals,"
Jeff French, a nuclear,
biological and chemical officer for a marine battalion in Kuwait told Time.
"Using chickens may sound basic but it's still one of the best ways we have
of detecting chemical agents." Operation KFC (Kuwaiti Field Chicken) will be
the second time chickens will be brought into battle - chickens were used to
detect chemicals during the first Gulf War.

Weblinks
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Source of the above news stories:
http://131.104.232.9/animalnet/2003/...ebruary_20.htm
Facing the Threat of Emerging Diseases and Bioterrorism:
http://www.aasv.org/news/story.php?id=395
Anthrax and Bioterrorism:
http://www.pighealth.com/diseases/anthrax.htm