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• Global reports on avian influenza: North America
  • Mia Kim Torchetti, National Veterinary Services Laboratories, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA, Ames, IA, 50010, USA
• Global reports on avian influenza: South America
  • Marcela Uhart, Wildlife Health Center, One Health Institute, University of California - Davis
• Global reports on avian influenza: Europe
  • Ian Brown, Pirbright Institute, United Kingdom

• Global reports on avian influenza: Asia
  • Erik Karlsson, Institut Pasteur du Cambodge, Cambodia
• Global reports on avian influenza: Africa
  • Celia Abolnik, Department of Production Animal Studies and Centre for Veterinary Wildlife Research, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
• Global reports on avian influenza: Australia
  • Frank Wong, CSIRO, Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness
• Global reports on avian influenza: Antarctica
  • Meagan Dewar, Future Regions Research Centre, Federation University Australia

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Invited Speaker: Erica Spackman, Exotic & Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Research
Acting Research Leader, USDA

Oral Abstracts:

• An HVT-based vaccination strategy to achieve long-lasting protection from 2.3.4.4b clade H5N1 viruses in fattening turkeys
  • Lucrezia Vianello, European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for Avian Influenza (AI) and Newcastle Disease (ND)
• A Simulation Model for Evaluating Optimal Strategies for Vaccination and Surveillance of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Poultry
  • Sandra Carapeto, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen
• Environmental sampling for detection of HPAIV in duck farms and its potential application in surveillance plans
  • Jean-Luc Guérin, National Veterinary School of Toulouse (ENVT) and INRAE
• Gradual Antigenic Drift of Avian Influenza H7N1 Virus in Poultry Flocks
  • Juliane Lang, Institute of Molecular Virology and Cell Biology, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut, Federal Research Institute for Animal Health
• High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza H5N1 Outbreak in a Layer Flock Vaccinated with Multiple H5 Vaccines
  • Ahmed H. Salaheldin, Department of Poultry Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

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Invited Speaker: Timm Harder, Laboratory Head, Institute of Infection Medicine at Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Kiel

Oral Abstracts: 

• Mass vaccination with reassortment-impaired live H9N2 avian influenza virus vaccine
  • Daniel Perez, University of Georgia
• Preventive vaccination against highly pathogenic avian influenza in duck farms in France: assessment and recommendations
  • Beatrice Grasland, Anses Laboratory of Ploufragan-Plouzané-Niort, French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES)
• Surveillance of avian influenza in the wild: can passive samplers be an option?
  • Valentina Panzarin, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie
• The boons and banes of vaccination in mitigating effects of HPAI threats to poultry and wildlife: lessons from Bangladesh
  • Marcel Klaassen, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University
• Vaccination of captive pelicans against highly pathogenic avian influenza: safety and immunogenicity evaluation of a self-amplifying RNA-H5 vaccine
  • Fiona Ingrao, Avian Virology and Immunology, Sciensano

Invited Speaker: 

• The changing face of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 - a focus to Europe
  • Alice Fusaro, European Union Reference Laboratory for Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe)

Oral Abstracts:

• HPAI H7 outbreaks in Australia in 2024/Avian influenza at the wild bird and poultry interface in Australia,
  • Andrew Breed, Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, NSW Government
  • Frank Wong, CSIRO, Australian Center for Disease Preparedness
• Epidemiological Investigation of H9N2 Avian Influenza A Virus in Poultry Production in Ghana
  • Guérin Jean-Luc, Veterinary school of Toulouse
• Genetic and Biological Characterization of H3N2 and H10N3 Avian Influenza Viruses Isolated in China
  • Huihui Kong, Harbin Veterinary Research Institute, Chinese academy of Agricultural Sciences
• Genetic characteristics and pathogenesis of clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 high pathogenicity avian influenza virus in South Korea during 2022-2023
  • Ra Mi Cha, Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency, Republic of Korea

Invited Speaker: 

• Between East and West: Molecular surveillance of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses in wild birds in Germany
  • Anne Pohlmann, Friedrich Loeffler Institute, FLI · Institute of Diagnostic Virology

Oral Abstracts:

• Avian influenza wildlife surveillance in Ukraine – a bridge between Europe and Asia
  • Denys Muzyka, National Scientific Center Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Kharkiv, Ukraine
• Epidemiology of avian influenza viruses in southwest Alaska before, concurrent with, and after introductions of HPAI
  • Christina Ahlstrom, USGS Alaska Science Center, US Geological Survey
• VIRTUAL Genetic Patterns of Siberian Avian Influenza Viruses: Uncovering a Global Hub in Northern Asia
  • Kirill Sharshov, Institute of Virology, Federal Research Center of Fundamental and Translational Medicine, Novosibirsk, Russia
• Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1) outbreaks at the wild-domestic bird interface in Cambodia and Vietnam, 2021-2024
  • Emily Denstedt, Wildlife Conservation Society, Greater Mekong and South Asia Regional Programs

Invited Speaker: 

• VIRTUAL Genetic resilience or resistance in poultry against avian influenza virus: mirage or reality?
  • David Suarez, Exotic & Emerging Avian Viral Diseases Research, Laboratory Director, USDA

Oral Abstracts:

• Leveraging Continuous Phylogeographic Analysis to Uncover Environmental and Ecological Drivers of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Italy
  • Diletta Fornasiero, Experimental Zooprophylactic Institute of the Veneto
• Live Bird Market: The melting hotpot of H5 and H9 circulation and maintenance in Bangladesh
  • Ariful Islam, Charles Sturt University
• Modelling spillover risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza from wild birds to poultry in Denmark
  • Yangfan Liu, Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, The University of Copenhagen
• Multi-scale epidemiological dynamics of avian influenza in Bangladesh’s live poultry trading networks
  • Sarah Hill, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College

Invited Speaker: Michelle Wille, Senior Research Fellow/Dr, University of Melbourne

Oral Abstracts:

• Novel insight into antibody immune responses of seabirds to H5Nx HP AI with implications for disease ecology and conservation,
  • Thierry Boulinier, CNRS Univ Montpellier
• Phylodynamics and genomic analyses of the A(H5N1) avian influenza outbreak in North America
  • Anthony Signore, Canadian Food Inspection Agency
• The International HPAI Australis Expedition 2024: searching for high pathogenicity avian influenza virus in Antarctica
  • Antonio Alcami, Centro de Biologia Molecular Severo Ochoa CSIC
• Wintering Waterfowl Behavior and Movement Patterns: Implications for HPAI Transmission Dynamics
  • Bradley Cohen, Tennessee Tech University

Sponsored by: 

Oral Abstracts:

• Assessing biosecurity and biocontainment practices for determining the risk of continuity of business movement off an HPAI-infected premises
  • Rosemary Marusak, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
• Biosecurity practices and farm level risk factors for highly pathogenic avian influenza in Sweden
  • Malin Grant, Swedish Veterinary Agency and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
• Estimating risk factors for outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry farms in Denmark
  • Helene Jensen, University of Copenhagen
• Evaluation of transmission metrics in a slow spreading highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in a commercial upland game bird system
  • Amos Sematimba, Secure Food Systems Team, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
• HPAI Outbreaks in Denmark: A Migratory Bird Hotspot
  • Charlotte Kristiane Hjulsager, Statens Serum Institut

Invited Speaker: 

• Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in wildlife: the conservation consequences and urgent response needs
  • Ruth Cromie, CMS FAO Co-convenor of Scientific Task Force on Avian Influenza and Wildlife, UK

Oral Abstracts: 

• Decades to recovery: present and future impacts of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza outbreaks on the NorthEast Atlantic gannet metapopulation
  • Jana Wibke Elisabeth Jeglinski, School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, University of Glasgow, UK/ Department of EcoScience, University of Aarhus, Denmark
• Differences in surveillance and reporting among countries may distort our understanding of the impacts of HPAI on wildlife in the Americas
  • Ralph Vanstreels, University of California - Davis
• Geographic, ecological, and temporal patterns of seabird mortality during the 2022 HPAI H5N1 outbreak on the island of Newfoundland
  • Gretchen McPhail, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Department of Biology
• No glory for prevention? The value of Joint Risk Assessment used as a participatory tool to rapidly identify management priorities for HPAI outbreaks in wildlife populations
  • Anja Globig, Institute of International Animal Health/One Health, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut (FLI)

Oral Abstracts:

• Keeping up with an ever-evolving Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza Virus
  • Mickey Leonard, University of Minnesota
• Persistence of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 in a pheasant farm environment during the post-depopulation fallow period
  • Jarra Jagne, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine
• Environmental DNA (eDNA) Surveillance of Avian Influenza Virus: A Novel Approach for Detecting Avian Influenza Virus in Urban Waterways of North Queensland, Australia.
  • VIRTUAL PRESENTER: Robyn Pearce, James Cook University

Invited Speaker: 

• HPAI H5N1 in Eastern Canadian Wild Birds: Mortality, Population Impacts, and Advances in Mortality Assessment
  • Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Wildlife and Landscape Science Directorate Science and Technology Branch, ​Environment and Climate Change Canada

Oral Abstracts: 

• Telltale signs of a multispecies epizootic: Spatial epidemiology of HPAI during the 2022 seabird outbreak
  • Jason Matthiopoulos, University of Glasgow
• Understanding the factors influencing mortality from HPAI in UK seabird colonies: integrating mortality data and an individual-based modelling approach
  • Susannah Gold,  Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, United Kingdom

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Invited Speaker: Yoshishiro Kawaoka, Department of Pathobiological Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Oral Abstracts: 

• Assessment of the Haemagglutinin Genes of Clade 2.3.4.4b A(H5Nx) High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus
  • Jiayun Yang, The Pirbright Institute
• A vaccine antigen central in influenza A(H5) virus antigenic space confers subtype-wide immunity in ferrets
  • Ron Fouchier, Department Viroscience, Erasmus MC
• Counteracting zoonotic influenza A viruses by synergistically targeting viral and host factors to inhibit viral replication
  • David Scheibner, Institute of Novel and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut
• Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 and H5N5 in Red Foxes in Norway 2022-2024
  • Malin Rokseth Reiten, Norwegian Veterinary Institute

Sponsored by

Invited Speaker: Kiril Dimitrov, Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory

Oral Abstracts: 

• Farm Gate to Microplate: Investigating H5N1 in Dairy Cattle in the Field and Laboratory
  • Andrew Bowman, Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University
• Experimental infection and viral pathogenesis of H5N1 influenza A virus in Jersey cattle
  • Daniel Perez, Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia
• How unique an event might the bovine incursion of H5N1 Clade 2.3.4.4b B3.13 genotype virus be?
  • Paul Digard, The Roslin Institute - The University of Edinburgh
• Multi-species outbreak of H5N1 in cattle and poultry in Minnesota
  • Martha Nelson, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

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Sponsored by:

Invited Speakers: 

• Pathobiology and transmission pathways of clade 2.3.4.4b in birds and mammals
  • Kateri Bertran, IRTA Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology
• Tamiru Alkie, Department of Biology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Oral Abstracts: 

• A Novel Biobanking Platform for Rapid Phenotyping of Avian Influenza Virus in Diverse Avian Tissues
  • Alessandra Napolitan, Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padua
• Antigenic characterisation of H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b highly pathogenic avian influenza virus under immunological pressure
  • Jasmina Luczo, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
• Comparative tissue tropism and pathology of clade 2.3.4.4b highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza A virus across North American avian species
  • Tori Andreasen, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, University of Georgia
• Exploring the impacts of highly pathogenic avian influenza on wild birds and the implications for transmission at multiple interfaces
  • Diann Prosser, USGS, Eastern Ecological Science Center

Oral Abstracts:

• The CSIC-UNESPA Antarctic Expedition 2025: monitoring highly pathogenic avian influenza virus in the Antarctic Peninsula
  • Antonio Alcami, Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa, CSIC
• Unprecedented Circumpolar Spread of Avian Influenza H5N1
  • Thierry Boulinier, CEFE CNRS Université Montpellier
• Transmission study testing HVT-H5 vaccines against highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus (clade 2.3.4.4b), 24-weeks post vaccination
  • Kim Bouwman, Wageningen Bioveterinary Research
• HPAI Surveillance in Peridomestic Wildlife on Infected Farms Following an Outbreak of HPAI in Dairy Cattle in the United States, April 2024 – March 2025
  • Krista Dilione, USDA-APHIS National Wildlife Disease Program

Since 2020 there have been many cases of serious outbreaks of HPAI in wild birds/wildlife but so far, our advice to wildlife managers is still the standardized old version. There must be some new issues and lessons learnt from outbreaks in the last few years. And we should work more before wild bird cases are getting out of control. In February 2024 the Pacific Seabird Group held a symposium at the annual meeting in Seattle and issued a statement.
When the Avian Disease Working Group was re-established under the East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership in 2023, we also prepared concept notes on things to be done.
The above were regional eMorts, a global strategy and coordinated actions engaging morestakeholders are more desirable.

Aim and goal of the meeting:

• Networking for global disease surveillance and coordinated response in wild bird populations.
• Identifying lessons learned and identifying actions that need to be taken in response to the current HPAI panzootic.
• Discussing what follow-up actions can be taken globally, including the possibility of formulating a global strategy on wild birds.

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