Migratory flyways in Far-East Asia and spatial-temporal relationship to HPAI H5N6 outbreaks in South Korea

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Migratory flyways in Far-East Asia and spatial-temporal relationship to HPAI H5N6 outbreaks in South Korea Seong-Keun Hong1*, Kwang-Nyeong Lee1, Hachung Yoon1, Dae-Sung Yoo1, Ilseob Lee1 and Han-Mo Son1 1 Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency (South Korea), Republic of Korea Since 2016, 365 cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIv) outbreaks by the Asian-origin H5N6 lineage of HPAIv have reported in South Korea and resulted in serious socio-economical losses. In this study, we demonstrated that the risk of HPAIv H5N6 in domestic poultry is related to wild birds. We expanded previous geospatial risk analysis method to East Asia including South Korea and integrated the analysis method with migration data of satellite-tracked wild birds along the far-east Asian flyway. We caught wild migratory birds around Lake Khanka (southeast area) collaborate with Russian researchers and attached a location tracker. From April to November 2018, we studied movement of 21 wild birds which carrying location tracker: 4 mallards, 2 spot-billed ducks, and 15 great egrets. The great egrets showed highest tracking success rate. During the migration, they stopped at several stopover sites (Russia to Japan; 1 mallard, 1 spot-billed duck, 1 great egret), and stayed for several weeks at those sites. We also demonstrated that migratory pathway of wild birds is correlated with HPAI H5N6 outbreaks, poultry density and latitude in East Asian Flyways. Spatial and statistical analysis was performed in ArcGIS 10.4.1(ESRI) and R 3.5.3. In addition, satellite-based movement patterns of wild birds showed that wild birds followed the East Asian flyway along the coast to breeding areas in eastern Russia. Taken together, our results suggest that it is important to analyze the tracking records of the movement of wild birds in various ways for making inference on the relationship between the migration of wild birds and outbreaks of HPAIv. Acknowledgements For field assistance with wild bird studies, we acknowledge the corperation of dedicated staff at Russian institutions, including Igor Katin and Ivan Tinuov(NSCMB FEB RAS). Additional support for tracking system was also provided by Korea Ecology Environment Research Institute, South Korea, including Han-Soo Lee. Any use of product or firm names is for descriptive purposes and does not imply endorsement by the South Korea Government.