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Rasmussen EA, Czaja A, Cuthbert FJ, Tan GS, Lemey P, Nelson MI, Culhane MR. Influenza A viruses in gulls in landfills and freshwater habitats in Minnesota, United States. Front Genet 2023; 14:1172048. [PMID: 37229191 PMCID: PMC10203411 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1172048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: The unpredictable evolution of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) presents an ongoing threat to agricultural production and public and wildlife health. Severe outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses in US poultry and wild birds since 2022 highlight the urgent need to understand the changing ecology of AIV. Surveillance of gulls in marine coastal environments has intensified in recent years to learn how their long-range pelagic movements potentially facilitate inter-hemispheric AIV movements. In contrast, little is known about inland gulls and their role in AIV spillover, maintenance, and long-range dissemination. Methods: To address this gap, we conducted active AIV surveillance in ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) and Franklin's gulls (Leucophaeus pipixcan) in Minnesota's natural freshwater lakes during the summer breeding season and in landfills during fall migration (1,686 samples). Results: Whole-genome AIV sequences obtained from 40 individuals revealed three-lineage reassortants with a mix of genome segments from the avian Americas lineage, avian Eurasian lineage, and a global "Gull" lineage that diverged more than 50 years ago from the rest of the AIV global gene pool. No poultry viruses contained gull-adapted H13, NP, or NS genes, pointing to limited spillover. Geolocators traced gull migration routes across multiple North American flyways, explaining how inland gulls imported diverse AIV lineages from distant locations. Migration patterns were highly varied and deviated far from assumed "textbook" routes. Discussion: Viruses circulating in Minnesota gulls during the summer breeding season in freshwater environments reappeared in autumn landfills, evidence of AIV persistence in gulls between seasons and transmission between habitats. Going forward, wider adoption of technological advances in animal tracking devices and genetic sequencing is needed to expand AIV surveillance in understudied hosts and habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A. Rasmussen
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
| | - Agata Czaja
- Computational Biology Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Francesca J. Cuthbert
- Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Gene S. Tan
- J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Philippe Lemey
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Martha I. Nelson
- Computational Biology Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Marie R. Culhane
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
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Ineson KM, Hill NJ, Clark DE, MacKenzie KG, Whitney JJ, Laskaris Y, Ronconi RA, Ellis JC, Giroux JF, Lair S, Stevens S, Puryear WB, Runstadler JA. Age and season predict influenza A virus dynamics in urban gulls: consequences for natural hosts in unnatural landscapes. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 32:e2497. [PMID: 34783416 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Gulls are ubiquitous in urban areas due to a growing reliance on anthropogenic feeding sites, which has led to changes in their abundance, distribution, and migration ecology, with implications for disease transmission. Gulls offer a valuable model for testing hypotheses regarding the dynamics of influenza A virus (IAV) - for which gulls are a natural reservoir in urban areas. We sampled sympatric populations of Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis), Herring (L. argentatus), and Great Black-backed Gulls (L. marinus) along the densely populated Atlantic rim of North America to understand how IAV transmission is influenced by drivers such as annual cycle, host species, age, habitat type, and their interplay. We found that horizontal transmission, rather than vertical transmission, played an outsized role in the amplification of IAV due to the convergence of gulls from different breeding grounds and age classes. We detected overlapping effects of age and season in our prevalence model, identifying juveniles during autumn as the primary drivers of the seasonal epidemic in gulls. Gulls accumulated immunity over their lifespan, however short-term fluctuations in seroprevalence were observed, suggesting that migration may impose limits on the immune system to maintain circulating antibodies. We found that gulls in coastal urban habitats had higher viral prevalence than gulls captured inland, correlating with higher richness of waterbird species along the coast, a mechanism supported by our movement data. The peak in viral prevalence in newly fledged gulls that are capable of long-distance movement has important implications for the spread of pathogens to novel hosts during the migratory season as well as for human health as gulls increasingly utilize urban habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine M Ineson
- Department of Natural Resources & the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824, USA
| | - Nichola J Hill
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, USA
| | - Daniel E Clark
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Kenneth G MacKenzie
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Jillian J Whitney
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Yianni Laskaris
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, Galloway, New Jersey, 08205, USA
| | - Robert A Ronconi
- Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 2N6, Canada
| | - Julie C Ellis
- Department of Pathobiology, Wildlife Futures Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, 19348, USA
| | - Jean-François Giroux
- Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3P8, Canada
| | - Stéphane Lair
- Centre québécois sur la santé des animaux sauvages/Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 2M2, Canada
| | - Skyler Stevens
- Division of Mathematics, Physical, and Natural Sciences, University of New Mexico, Gallup, New Mexico, 87301, USA
| | - Wendy B Puryear
- Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, 01536, USA
| | - Jonathan A Runstadler
- Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, 01536, USA
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Hubálek Z. Pathogenic microorganisms associated with gulls and terns (Laridae). JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE BIOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.25225/jvb.21009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Zdeněk Hubálek
- Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech Republic; e-mail:
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Jerry C, Stallknecht D, Leyson C, Berghaus R, Jordan B, Pantin-Jackwood M, Hitchener G, França M. Recombinant hemagglutinin glycoproteins provide insight into binding to host cells by H5 influenza viruses in wild and domestic birds. Virology 2020; 550:8-20. [PMID: 32861143 PMCID: PMC7554162 DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2020.08.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/25/2020] [Revised: 08/02/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
Clade 2.3.4.4, H5 subtype highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) have caused devastating effects across wild and domestic bird populations. We investigated differences in the intensity and distribution of the hemagglutinin (HA) glycoprotein binding of a clade 2.3.4.4 H5 HPAIV compared to a H5 low pathogenic avian influenza virus (LPAIV). Recombinant HA from gene sequences from a HPAIV, A/Northern pintail/Washington/40964/2014(H5N2) and a LPAIV, A/mallard/MN/410/2000(H5N2) were generated and, via protein histochemistry, HA binding in respiratory, intestinal and cloacal bursal tissue was quantified as median area of binding (MAB). Poultry species, shorebirds, ducks and terrestrial birds were used. Differences in MAB were observed between the HPAIV and LPAIV H5 HAs. We demonstrate that clade 2.3.4.4 HPAIV H5 HA has a broader host cell binding across a variety of bird species compared to the LPAIV H5 HA. These findings support published results from experimental trials, and outcomes of natural disease outbreaks with these viruses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carmen Jerry
- Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, 953 College, Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605, USA; The Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, 501 D.W. Brooks Drive, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - David Stallknecht
- Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, 589 D.W Brooks Drive, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Christina Leyson
- Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, U.S. National Poultry Research Center, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 934 College Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605, USA
| | - Roy Berghaus
- Food Animal Health and Management Program, Veterinary Medical Center, 2200 College Station Road, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Brian Jordan
- Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, 953 College, Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605, USA
| | - Mary Pantin-Jackwood
- Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, U.S. National Poultry Research Center, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, 934 College Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605, USA
| | - Gavin Hitchener
- Cornell University Duck Research Laboratory, 192 Old Country Road, Eastport, NY, 11941, USA
| | - Monique França
- Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center, 953 College, Station Road, Athens, GA, 30605, USA.
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A Review of Avian Influenza A Virus Associations in Synanthropic Birds. Viruses 2020; 12:v12111209. [PMID: 33114239 PMCID: PMC7690888 DOI: 10.3390/v12111209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2020] [Revised: 10/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Avian influenza A viruses (IAV) have received significant attention due to the threat they pose to human, livestock, and wildlife health. In this review, we focus on what is known about IAV dynamics in less common avian species that may play a role in trafficking IAVs to poultry operations. Specifically, we focus on synanthropic bird species. Synanthropic species, otherwise known as peridomestic, are species that are ecologically associated with humans and anthropogenically modified landscapes, such as agricultural and urban areas. Aquatic birds such as waterfowl and shorebirds are the species most commonly associated with avian IAVs, and are generally considered the reservoir or maintenance hosts in the natural ecology of these viruses. Waterfowl and shorebirds are occasionally associated with poultry facilities, but are uncommon or absent in many areas, especially large commercial operations. In these cases, spillover hosts that share resources with both maintenance hosts and target hosts such as poultry may play an important role in introducing wild bird viruses onto farms. Consequently, our focus here is on what is known about IAV dynamics in synanthropic hosts that are commonly found on both farms and in nearby habitats, such as fields, lakes, wetlands, or riparian areas occupied by waterfowl or shorebirds.
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