Abstract Title
Seventeen Years of Sentinel wild bird Surveillance in Germany - Insights into Avian Influenza Ecology in the Greifswald Bodden Area
Abstract
In 1996, a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N1-lineage emerged from domestic poultry in China with A/Goose/Guangdong/96 as an ancestral virus of the gs/GD lineage that subsequently circulated, adapted and differentiated into a plethora of reassortant progeny that widely dispersed over vast geographic and temporal distances.
Mallards play an important role in the maintenance and dissemination of low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIV), but likely also of H5 2.3.4.4b viruses associated with lower mortalities as compared to other anseriform wild bird species.
Since 2006, a small raft of hand-raised mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) was placed as sentinels in the shallow coast of the southern Baltic sea (Greifswald Bodden, Germany). The ducks were usually kept between 6-12 months in an aviary directly on the coast line and in close contact to wild waterfowl and migratory birds. During 17 years of fortnightly testing for AIV infection in various batches of sentinel mallard ducks by using combined oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs, HPAIV was not detected until 2020/2021, even though H5NXB was circulating in wild ducks and gulls in the same geographical area in 2016/2017. Instead, several LPAIV infections were detected annually in individual ducks. In 2021, we first detected H5N8B in samples from clinically asymptomatic sentinel mallard ducks, followed by H5N1B in 2022. The results of the 17 year long sentinel AIV surveillance program will be presented and discussed in the context of the role that mallard ducks may play in the ecology of emerging reassorted HPAIV.
Mallards play an important role in the maintenance and dissemination of low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIV), but likely also of H5 2.3.4.4b viruses associated with lower mortalities as compared to other anseriform wild bird species.
Since 2006, a small raft of hand-raised mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) was placed as sentinels in the shallow coast of the southern Baltic sea (Greifswald Bodden, Germany). The ducks were usually kept between 6-12 months in an aviary directly on the coast line and in close contact to wild waterfowl and migratory birds. During 17 years of fortnightly testing for AIV infection in various batches of sentinel mallard ducks by using combined oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs, HPAIV was not detected until 2020/2021, even though H5NXB was circulating in wild ducks and gulls in the same geographical area in 2016/2017. Instead, several LPAIV infections were detected annually in individual ducks. In 2021, we first detected H5N8B in samples from clinically asymptomatic sentinel mallard ducks, followed by H5N1B in 2022. The results of the 17 year long sentinel AIV surveillance program will be presented and discussed in the context of the role that mallard ducks may play in the ecology of emerging reassorted HPAIV.
Co-Author(s)
Anja Globig a*, Francesca Isabel Rondi b, Anne Günther c, Angele Breithaupt d, Joaquin Neumann-Heise a, Klaus Depner a, Christian Grund c, Christoph Staubach e, Timm Harder c, Martin Beer c, Thomas Mettenleiter f
a Institute of International Animal Health/One Health, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institute (FLI), Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany; *presenter
b Scienze Biotecnologiche Veterinarie, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy
c Institute of Diagnostic Virology, FLI, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany
d Department of Experimental Animal Facilities and Biorisk Management, FLI, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany
e Institute of Epidemiology, FLI, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany
f FLI, Greifswald-Insel Riems, Germany
Abstract Category
Notable outbreaks, field and molecular epidemiology, and surveillance in wild birds