Avian influenza virus circulation and immunity in a wild urban duck population prior to and during a highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13567-024-01397-5

Language of the publication
English
Date
2024-11-22
Type
Article
Author(s)
  • Wight, Jordan
  • Rahman, Ishraq
  • Wallace, Hannah L.
  • Cunningham, Joshua T.
  • Roul, Sheena
  • Robertson, Gregory J.
  • Russell, Rodney S.
  • Xu, Wanhong
  • Zhmendak, Dmytro
  • Alkie, Tamiru N.
  • Berhane, Yohannes
  • Hargan, Kathryn E.
  • Lang, Andrew S.
Publisher
Springer Nature

Abstract

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b viruses were first detected in St. John’s, Canada in late 2021. To investigate the patterns of avian influenza virus (AIV) infection and immune responses subsequent to the arrival of H5N1, we sampled the wild urban duck population in this area for a period of 16 months after the start of the outbreak and compared these findings to those from archived samples. Antibody seroprevalence was relatively stable before the outbreak (2011–2014) at 27.6% and 3.9% for anti-AIV (i.e., NP) and H5-specific antibodies, respectively. During the winter of 2022, AIV-NP and H5-specific antibody seroprevalence both reached 100%, signifying a population-wide infection event, which was observed again in late February 2023 following a second H5N1 incursion from Eurasia. As expected, population-level immunity waned over time, with ducks seropositive for anti-AIV-NP antibodies for approximately twice as long as for H5-specific antibodies, with the population seronegative to the latter after approximately six months. We observed a clear relationship of increasing antibody levels with decreasing viral RNA loads that allowed for interpretation of the course of infection and immune response in infected individuals and applied these findings to two cases of resampled ducks to infer infection history. Our study highlights the value of applying both AIV surveillance and seroprevalence monitoring to provide a better understanding of AIV dynamics in wild populations, which may be crucial following the global dissemination of clade 2.3.4.4b H5Nx subtypes to assess the threats they pose to both wild and domestic animals, and to humans.

Subject

  • Infectious diseases,
  • Viruses

Keywords

  • Avian influenza,
  • Immunity,
  • Serology

Rights

Pagination

1-14

Peer review

Yes

Open access level

Gold

Identifiers

ISSN
1297-9716

Article

Journal title
Veterinary Research
Journal volume
55
Article number
154
Accepted date
2024-09-09
Submitted date
2024-04-26

Citation(s)

Wight, J., Rahman, I., Wallace, H. L., Cunningham, J. T., Roul, S., Robertson, G. J., Russell, R. S., Xu, W., Zhmendak, D., Alkie, T. N., Berhane, Y., Hargan, K. E., & Lang, A. S. (2024). Avian influenza virus circulation and immunity in a wild urban duck population prior to and during a highly pathogenic H5N1 outbreak. Veterinary Research, 55, Article 154. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13567-024-01397-5

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Animals

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