Sleeping with chicken can repel mosquitoes, new research shows

Ethiopian and Swedish scientists, through a joint research, have discovered that the odour from a live chicken could help repel mosquitoes.

According to the research conducted in western Ethiopia, it was learnt that malarial mosquitoes tend to avoid chickens and other birds.

During the experiments, a live chicken was suspended in a cage near a volunteer sleeping under a bed net, which led to a situation whereby many mosquitoes avoided the area.

Apart from live chickens, compounds extracted from chicken feathers were also used in the experiments.

Researchers also discovered that the number of mosquitoes found in the trap nearby “significantly reduced” through the use of the chicken and the compounds.

The researchers then concluded that something in a chicken’s odour appeared to repel the mosquitoes.

Habte Tekie, who worked on the research, was quoted to have said the compounds from the chicken’s odour can be extracted and could work as a mosquito repellent.

He told the BBC that field trials for this stage of the research were now “in the pipeline”.

In Nigeria, malaria is responsible for 60% outpatient visits to health facilities, 30% childhood death, 25% of death in children under one year and 11% maternal death.

According to the Malaria National Programme, “the financial loss due to malaria annually is estimated to be about by 132 billion Naira in form of treatment costs, prevention, loss of man-hours, etc”.