Large-scale avian influenza surveillance in wild birds throughout the United States.

Sarah N Bevins,Mark W Lutman,Seth R Swafford,Thomas Gidlewski,John A Baroch,Brandon S Schmit,Dale L Nolte,Kerri Pedersen,Thomas J Deliberto,Dennis Kohler

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104360

Sarah N Bevins, Mark W Lutman + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0104360

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Abstract

Avian influenza is a viral disease that primarily infects wild and domestic birds, but it also can be transmitted to a variety of mammals. In 2006, the United States of America Departments of Agriculture and Interior designed a large-scale, interagency surveillance effort that sought to determine if highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses were present in wild bird populations within the United States of America. This program, combined with the Canadian and Mexican surveillance programs, represented the largest, coordinated wildlife disease surveillance program ever implemented. Here we analyze data from 197,885 samples that were collected from over 200 wild bird species. While the initial motivation for surveillance focused on highly pathogenic avian influenza, the scale of the data provided unprecedented information on the ecology of avian influenza viruses in the United States, avian influenza virus host associations, and avian influenza prevalence in wild birds over time. Ultimately, significant advances in our knowledge of avian influenza will depend on both large-scale surveillance efforts and on focused research studies.

Highlights

In 2006, the United States of America (USA) Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Interior (DOI), along with multiple state and tribal agencies, implemented a nationally coordinated, avian influenza surveillance effort in wild birds. This surveillance effort was initially motivated by concern stemming from the involvement of wild birds in novel outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in Asia during 2004 and 2005 [1,2,3,4]. This strategy was based on the premise that while the greatest risk of HPAIV introduction was from the illegal importation of poultry or poultry products, as well as through the illegal trade of wild and exotic birds, HPAIV could be introduced through wild bird migration [4,5,6]
This paper summarizes the resultant data, with the objectives being, (1) to provide an overview of the USA’s wild bird early detection system for HPAIV, (2) to report specific results associated with that effort, (3) to identify wild bird avian influenza viruses (AIV) hotspots within the continental USA that could aid in future, targeted surveillance efforts and (4), to highlight patterns of infection that can be revealed through largescale pathogen surveillance efforts in wildlife
The wild bird metacommunity was stratified by flyway and again by species, both to take into account their potential role in moving HPAIV into the USA and to reflect the severity of HPAIV infection that is associated with different species [16]

Summary

Introduction

In 2006, the United States of America (USA) Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Interior (DOI), along with multiple state and tribal agencies, implemented a nationally coordinated, avian influenza surveillance effort in wild birds. This surveillance effort was initially motivated by concern stemming from the involvement of wild birds in novel outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in Asia during 2004 and 2005 [1,2,3,4]. The surveillance system was designed to detect as many AIVs as possible, regardless of their pathogenicity

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