Giuseppe
Emeritus
[Source: PLoS ONE, full page: (LINK). Abstract, edited.]
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Ecological Factors Driving Avian Influenza Virus Dynamics in Spanish Wetland Ecosystems
Elisa P?rez-Ram?rez<SUP>1</SUP><SUP>*</SUP>, Pelayo Acevedo<SUP>2</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>3</SUP>, Alberto Allepuz<SUP>3</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>4</SUP>, Xeider Gerrikagoitia<SUP>5</SUP>, Anna Alba<SUP>3</SUP>, N?ria Busquets<SUP>3</SUP>, Sandra D?az-S?nchez<SUP>1</SUP>, Vega ?lvarez<SUP>5</SUP>, Francesc Xavier Abad<SUP>3</SUP>, Marta Barral<SUP>5</SUP>, Nat?lia Maj?<SUP>3</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>4</SUP>, Ursula H?fle<SUP>1</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
1 Instituto de Investigaci?n en Recursos Cineg?ticos (IREC), UCLM-JCCM-CSIC, Ciudad Real, Spain, 2 Biogeography, Diversity and Conservation Research Team, Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Malaga, M?laga, Spain, 3 Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain, 4 Departament de Sanitat i Anatomia Animals, Facultat Veterin?ria, Universitat Aut?noma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain, 5 NEIKER-Instituto Vasco de Investigaci?n y Desarrollo Agrario, Animal Health Department, Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
Abstract
Studies exploring the ecological interactions between avian influenza viruses (AIV), natural hosts and the environment are scarce. Most work has focused on viral survival and transmission under laboratory conditions and through mathematical modelling. However, more integrated studies performed under field conditions are required to validate these results. In this study, we combined information on bird community, environmental factors and viral epidemiology to assess the contribution of biotic and abiotic factors in the occurrence of low pathogenic AIV in Spanish wetlands. For that purpose, seven locations in five different wetlands were studied during two years (2007?2009), including seven sampling visits by location. In each survey, fresh faeces (n = 4578) of wild birds and water samples were collected for viral detection. Also, the vegetation structure, water physical properties of wetlands, climatic conditions and wild bird community composition were determined. An overall AIV prevalence of 1.7%?0.4 was detected in faecal samples with important fluctuations among seasons and locations. Twenty-six AIV were isolated from the 78 RRT-PCR positive samples and eight different haemagglutinines and five neuraminidases were identified, being the combination H3N8 the most frequent. Variation partitioning procedures identified the combination of space and time variables as the most important pure factor ? independently to other factors ? explaining the variation in AIV prevalence (36.8%), followed by meteorological factor (21.5%) and wild bird community composition/vegetation structure (21.1%). These results contribute to the understanding of AIV ecological drivers in Spanish ecosystems and provide useful guidelines for AIV risk assessment identifying potential hotspots of AIV activity.
Citation: P?rez-Ram?rez E, Acevedo P, Allepuz A, Gerrikagoitia X, Alba A, et al. (2012) Ecological Factors Driving Avian Influenza Virus Dynamics in Spanish Wetland Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 7(11): e46418. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046418
Editor: Justin David Brown, University of Georgia, United States of America
Received: June 5, 2012; Accepted: August 29, 2012; Published: November 12, 2012
Copyright: ? 2012 P?rez-Ram?rez et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was financially supported by INIA (Instituto Nacional de Investigaci?n y Tecnolog?a Agraria y Alimentaria), project FAU2006-00019-C03-00 and by Department of Environment, Territorial Planning, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Basque Government. P. Acevedo was supported by a Beatriu de Pin?s fellowship funded by Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Innovaci?, Universitats i Empresa, of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the COFUND Programme-Marie Curie Actions under 7th Marc Programme of the European Community. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: elisaperezramirez@gmail.com
-Elisa P?rez-Ram?rez<SUP>1</SUP><SUP>*</SUP>, Pelayo Acevedo<SUP>2</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>3</SUP>, Alberto Allepuz<SUP>3</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>4</SUP>, Xeider Gerrikagoitia<SUP>5</SUP>, Anna Alba<SUP>3</SUP>, N?ria Busquets<SUP>3</SUP>, Sandra D?az-S?nchez<SUP>1</SUP>, Vega ?lvarez<SUP>5</SUP>, Francesc Xavier Abad<SUP>3</SUP>, Marta Barral<SUP>5</SUP>, Nat?lia Maj?<SUP>3</SUP><SUP>,</SUP><SUP>4</SUP>, Ursula H?fle<SUP>1</SUP>
<SUP></SUP>
1 Instituto de Investigaci?n en Recursos Cineg?ticos (IREC), UCLM-JCCM-CSIC, Ciudad Real, Spain, 2 Biogeography, Diversity and Conservation Research Team, Department of Animal Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Malaga, M?laga, Spain, 3 Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain, 4 Departament de Sanitat i Anatomia Animals, Facultat Veterin?ria, Universitat Aut?noma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona, Spain, 5 NEIKER-Instituto Vasco de Investigaci?n y Desarrollo Agrario, Animal Health Department, Derio, Bizkaia, Spain
Abstract
Studies exploring the ecological interactions between avian influenza viruses (AIV), natural hosts and the environment are scarce. Most work has focused on viral survival and transmission under laboratory conditions and through mathematical modelling. However, more integrated studies performed under field conditions are required to validate these results. In this study, we combined information on bird community, environmental factors and viral epidemiology to assess the contribution of biotic and abiotic factors in the occurrence of low pathogenic AIV in Spanish wetlands. For that purpose, seven locations in five different wetlands were studied during two years (2007?2009), including seven sampling visits by location. In each survey, fresh faeces (n = 4578) of wild birds and water samples were collected for viral detection. Also, the vegetation structure, water physical properties of wetlands, climatic conditions and wild bird community composition were determined. An overall AIV prevalence of 1.7%?0.4 was detected in faecal samples with important fluctuations among seasons and locations. Twenty-six AIV were isolated from the 78 RRT-PCR positive samples and eight different haemagglutinines and five neuraminidases were identified, being the combination H3N8 the most frequent. Variation partitioning procedures identified the combination of space and time variables as the most important pure factor ? independently to other factors ? explaining the variation in AIV prevalence (36.8%), followed by meteorological factor (21.5%) and wild bird community composition/vegetation structure (21.1%). These results contribute to the understanding of AIV ecological drivers in Spanish ecosystems and provide useful guidelines for AIV risk assessment identifying potential hotspots of AIV activity.
Citation: P?rez-Ram?rez E, Acevedo P, Allepuz A, Gerrikagoitia X, Alba A, et al. (2012) Ecological Factors Driving Avian Influenza Virus Dynamics in Spanish Wetland Ecosystems. PLoS ONE 7(11): e46418. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0046418
Editor: Justin David Brown, University of Georgia, United States of America
Received: June 5, 2012; Accepted: August 29, 2012; Published: November 12, 2012
Copyright: ? 2012 P?rez-Ram?rez et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This work was financially supported by INIA (Instituto Nacional de Investigaci?n y Tecnolog?a Agraria y Alimentaria), project FAU2006-00019-C03-00 and by Department of Environment, Territorial Planning, Agriculture and Fisheries of the Basque Government. P. Acevedo was supported by a Beatriu de Pin?s fellowship funded by Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Innovaci?, Universitats i Empresa, of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the COFUND Programme-Marie Curie Actions under 7th Marc Programme of the European Community. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: elisaperezramirez@gmail.com
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