No evidence of avian influenza antibodies in two species of raptor nestlings inhabiting Norway

• Published in: BMC Veterinary Research
• Main Authors: Lee, Megan Marie, Jaspers, Veerle, Løseth, Mari Engvig, Briels, Nathalie, Nygård, Torgeir, Bustnes, Jan Ove, Waugh, Courtney
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BioMed Central 2019
• Subjects: Norway; Accipiter gentilis; Haliaeetus albicilla; Northern Goshawk; White-tailed eagle
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2637454; https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-019-2133-0

Background: Since 2016, incursions of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) H5N8 clade 2.3.4.4b have caused unprecedented clinical signs and mortality in white-tailed eagles (WTE; Haliaeetus albicilla) across Europe and have been found to be infecting other raptor species, such as the northern goshawk (NG; Accipiter gentilis). Before this study, no screening of Norwegian raptors had been undertaken. Results: Plasma samples from 43 white-tailed eagle and 29 northern goshawk nestlings, from several locations across Norway were screened for antibodies to avian influenza viruses. No antibodies, and thus, no evidence of AIV exposure, were found in these Norwegian raptors. No clinical signs of AIV were observed in 43 white tailed eagles and 29 northern goshawks. Conclusions: There are currently no indications that white-tailed eagles and northern goshawks inhabiting Norway are threatened by the recent HPAIV outbreaks in other areas of Europe. Ongoing monitoring should, however, be maintained to detect potential future outbreaks. publishedVersion Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.