University of Georgia researchers have found that the common wood duck and laughing gull are very susceptible to highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza viruses and have the potential to transmit them.

Their finding, published in the November issue of the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, demonstrates that different species of North American birds would respond very differently if infected with these viruses. David Stallknecht, associate professor in the department of population health at the UGA College of Veterinary Medicine and co-author of the study, said knowing which species are likely to be affected by highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses is a vital component of efforts to quickly detect the disease should it arrive in North America.

"If you're looking for highly pathogenic H5N1 in wild birds, it would really pay to investigate any wood duck deaths because they seem to be highly susceptible, as are laughing gulls," said Stallknecht, a member of the UGA Biomedical and Health Sciences Institute. "It was also very interesting that in some species that you normally think of as influenza reservoirs the mallard, for instance the duration and extent of viral shedding is relatively low. This may be good news since it suggests that highly pathogenic H5N1 may have a difficult time surviving in North American wild birds even if it did arrive here."

Working under controlled conditions in an airtight biosecurity lab at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, the researchers determined how much of the virus was shed in the feces and through the respiratory system of several species of wild birds. The work was jointly funded by the United States Poultry and Egg Association, the Morris Animal Foundation and the USDA.

"We chose birds that, because of their behavior or habitat utilization, are most likely to transmit the virus or bring the virus here to North America," said lead author and doct
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Contact: Sam Fahmy
sfahmy@uga.edu
706-542-5361
University of Georgia
23-Oct-2006