Arboviruses in Birds

Widespread Detection of Antibodies to Eastern Equine Encephalitis, West Nile, St. Louis Encephalitis, and Turlock Viruses in Various Species of Wild Birds from Across the United States

“…Even though other studies have reported resident birds as more likely to serve as amplifying hosts of arboviruses than migrants, 32 we identified serological evidence of past infection in several migrant species, and evidence of EEEV in western states in migrating species, suggesting that further studies are warranted to assess their competence as amplifying hosts. We also identified a relatively high percentage of antibody positive birds (29.7%) with evidence of infection with multiple arboviruses, which has been reported previously.…”

“…Although TURV is widely distributed from Canada south to Ecuador, 32 none of the birds from Hawaii (N = 10) tested seropositive, which may be due to small sample size or because Hawaii is west of the longitudinal gradient of TURV distribution. Our national-level apparent prevalence of TURV (3.4%) was higher than another study conducted in Texas that identified an apparent prevalence of 0.4% (15 of 3,964) in house sparrows (Passer domesticus).…”

Infectious diseases of Antarctic penguins: current status and future threats

“…As with avian malaria, West Nile virus is most likely absent due to the absence of competent vectors. However, there may be some transmission potential for this virus in Antarctica as ticks have also been implicated as vectors (Lawrie et al 2004;McLean and Ubico 2007), and the hard tick Ixodes uriae is common in seabird colonies not only in parts of the Antarctic Treaty area (Pugh 1997;Benoit et al 2007) but has Transhemispheric distribution (Olsen et al 1995).…”

Antibody Prevalence of Select Arboviruses in Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) in the Great Lakes Region and Atlantic Coast of the United States

“…Although mute swans in the United States only move short distances based on weather, 12 it is possible that the antibody-positive bird migrated from a nearby state, where SLEV infections are more common. Because morbidity and mortality are generally limited in avian hosts, 13 it is possible that SLEV may have circulated undetected in these areas. In contrast to SLEV, WNV detection was lower than expected in areas where it is actively transmitted.…”

“…This may be because of high rates of mortality in exposed swans, because mortality in geese (also of the family Anatidae) attributed to WNV infection has been documented. 13 Another explanation is that the larvae of mosquitoes that are most commonly involved in transmitting WNV occur in stagnant water 14 and not wetlands, where mute swans are typically found, meaning that the probability of mute swans being exposed is relatively low.…”