No evidence that migratory geese disperse avian influenza viruses from breeding to wintering ground

PLoS One. 2017 May 18;12(5):e0177790. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0177790. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Low pathogenic avian influenza virus can mutate to a highly pathogenic strain that causes severe clinical signs in birds and humans. Migratory waterfowl, especially ducks, are considered the main hosts of low pathogenic avian influenza virus, but the role of geese in dispersing the virus over long-distances is still unclear. We collected throat and cloaca samples from three goose species, Bean goose (Anser fabalis), Barnacle goose (Branta leucopsis) and Greater white-fronted goose (Anser albifrons), from their breeding grounds, spring stopover sites, and wintering grounds. We tested if the geese were infected with low pathogenic avian influenza virus outside of their wintering grounds, and analysed the spatial and temporal patterns of infection prevalence on their wintering grounds. Our results show that geese were not infected before their arrival on wintering grounds. Barnacle geese and Greater white-fronted geese had low prevalence of infection just after their arrival on wintering grounds in the Netherlands, but the prevalence increased in successive months, and peaked after December. This suggests that migratory geese are exposed to the virus after their arrival on wintering grounds, indicating that migratory geese might not disperse low pathogenic avian influenza virus during autumn migration.

MeSH terms

  • Animal Migration*
  • Animals
  • Breeding*
  • Geese / physiology*
  • Geese / virology*
  • Influenza A virus / physiology*
  • Influenza in Birds / transmission
  • Influenza in Birds / virology
  • Seasons*

Grants and funding

This work was carried out in the framework of the projects ‘Flyway conservation of migratory waterbirds’, BO-10-003-002, and ‘Voortzetting monitoring ganzen en Smienten ivm het voorkomen van vogelgriepvirussen in 2008/2009’, Verpl. Nr. 2001126, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Food Quality. The study is supported by a Ph.D. scholarship to Shenglai Yin from the Chinese Scholarship Council (Nr. 201406190178), and by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, European Research Council project FLUPLAN [250136] and NIAID/NIH contract HHSN272201400008C. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.