Source: Chris Scott, MEATINGPLACE, 8/2/16


The 2015 U.S. outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) may not have been as linked to wild waterfowl than first believed, according to new research led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The team studied North American wild bird populations – which are known to spread low pathogenic avian influenza – and discovered than no HPAI viruses had been detected in wild birds here in the 43 years before last year’s HPAI outbreak. The study involved a total of nearly 123,000 wild bird samples collected before the 2015 outbreak, which USDA said resulted in the deaths of at least 43 million domestic birds before it essentially ended late last year.

“Although the stamping out strategies adopted by the poultry industry and animal health authorities in Canada and the United States—which included culling, quarantining, increased biosecurity, and abstention from vaccine use—were successful in eradicating the HP H5Nx viruses from poultry, these activities do not explain the apparent disappearance of these viruses from migratory waterfowl,” the researchers stated in an abstract of their findings.

The scientists believe that more research is needed to fully understand HPAI resistance in wild waterfowl with the goal of improving the industry’s knowledge of the mechanisms that prevent wild birds from perpetuating spread of the virus.

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