Evidence of avian influenza virus inseabirds breeding on a Norwegian high-Arctic archipelago

Wild aquatic birds serve as the natural reservoir for avian influenza virus (AIV), a disease with significant implications for avian and mammalian health. Climate change is predicted to impact the dynamics of AIV, particularly in areas such as the Arctic, but the baseline data needed to detect these...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC Veterinary Research
Main Authors: Lee, Megan Marie, Jaspers, Veerle L.B., Gabrielsen, W. Geir, Munro Jenssen, Bjørn, Ciesielski, Tomasz Maciej, Mortensen, Åse-Karen, Lundgren, Silje Strand, Waugh, Courtney A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: BioMed Central 2020
Subjects:
Arctic
Svalbard
Svalbard Archipelago
Arctic Archipelago
Black-legged Kittiwake
Climate change
rissa tridactyla
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2653123
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-020-2265-2
Description
Summary:Wild aquatic birds serve as the natural reservoir for avian influenza virus (AIV), a disease with significant implications for avian and mammalian health. Climate change is predicted to impact the dynamics of AIV, particularly in areas such as the Arctic, but the baseline data needed to detect these shifts is often unavailable. In this study, plasma from two species of gulls breeding on the high-Arctic Svalbard archipelago were screened for antibodies to AIV. Results AIV antibodies were found in black-legged kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla) samples from multiple years, as well as in glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreous) samples. Conclusions Despite small sample sizes, evidence of exposure to AIV was found among Svalbard gulls. A wider survey of Svalbard avian species is warranted to establish knowledge on the extent of AIV exposure on Svalbard and to determine whether active infections are present. 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.

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