Of Ducks and Men: Ecology and Evolution of a Zoonotic Pathogen in a Wild Reservoir Host

Wille, Michelle; Latorre‐Margalef, Neus; Waldenström, Jonas

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-60616-3_9

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 218 publications

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“…These backtrajectories are seen to intersect the three major migrating birds’ flyways in Asia (Central Asian, East Asian–Australian and East African–West Asian). The onset season of the epidemics reported in Table 3 , mainly autumn and winter, coincide with the southward migration of waterfowl species from their breeding summer regions toward their wintering places in China (G. Wang et al 2008 ; Wille et al 2017 ). The only exception is the Hong Kong flu of 1968 (yellow line in Fig.…”

Section: Appendixmentioning

confidence: 94%

Lessons learned and questions raised during and post-COVID-19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate

Zerefos

Solomos

Kapsomenakis

et al. 2020

Environ Dev Sustain

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In the first part, this work reports that during the global “anthropopause” period, that was imposed in March and April 2020 for limiting the spread of COVID-19, the concentrations of basic air pollutants over Europe were reduced by up to 70%. During May and June, the gradual lift of the stringent measures resulted in the recovery of these reductions with pollution concentrations approaching the levels before the lockdown by the end of June 2020. In the second part, this work examines the alleged correlations between the reported cases of COVID-19 and temperature, humidity and particulate matter for March and April 2020 in Europe. It was found that decreasing temperatures and relative humidity with increasing concentrations of particulate matter are correlated with an increase in the number of reported cases during these 2 months. However, when these calculations were repeated for May and June, we found a remarkable drop in the significance of the correlations which leads us to question the generally accepted inverse relation between pandemics and air temperature at least during the warmer months. Such a relationship could not be supported in our study for SARS-CoV-2 virus and the question remains open. In the third and last part of this work, we examine the question referring to the origin of pandemics. In this context we have examined the hypothesis that the observed climate warming in Siberia and the Arctic and the thawing of permafrost could result to the release of trapped in the permafrost pathogens in the atmosphere. We find that although such relations cannot be directly justified, they present a possible horrifying mechanism for the origin of viruses in the future during the developing global warming of our planet in the decades to come. Overall the findings of our study indicate that: (1) the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in Europe during the “anthropopause” period of March and April 2020 was significant, but when the lockdown measures were raised the concentrations of atmospheric pollutants quickly recovered to pre-pandemic levels and therefore any possible climatic feedbacks were negligible; (2) no robust relationship between atmospheric parameters and the spread of COVID-19 cases can be justified in the warmer part of the year and (3) more research needs to be done regarding the possible links between climate change and the release of new pathogens from thawing of permafrost areas.

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Section: Appendixmentioning

confidence: 94%

Lessons learned and questions raised during and post-COVID-19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate

Zerefos

Solomos

Kapsomenakis

et al. 2020

Environ Dev Sustain

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“…This information will further our understanding of how mallards perpetuate LPAIV in nature, and increase our knowledge of their immune systems coevolutionary arms race with this virus (van Dijk et al, 2015). Also, from a veterinary perspective this is vital information, as mallards are an important species for zoonotic transmission and spillover events to domestic animals (Wille et al, 2017). Despite the acknowledged differences between the mallard groups in LPAIV exposure (infection history, infective dose, LPAIVs, and route of infection), we believe, we have taken an important first step in assessing the use of domestic mallards as an innate immunological model for their free-living counterparts in LPAIV, whereby we build a foundation on which future research on the overall immune response of mallards (e.g., immune genes, cytokines, and acquired immunity) can be built.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Spill-over of LPAIV subtypes H5 and H7 from wild birds to poultry can result in massive outbreaks, sometimes involving the culling of millions of domestic birds, when LPAIVs evolve into highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (Alexander, 2007). Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are suggested to play an important role in the transmission of LPAIVs to domestic birds (chickens, turkeys, and ducks) and their wild counterparts, partly due to their great abundance (~19 million individuals), worldwide distribution, and preference for human-influenced environments (Wille et al, 2017). LPAIV infections in mallards cause no apparent tissue damage or disease signs (Kuiken, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of the Innate Humoral Immune Response to Avian Influenza Virus in Wild and Domestic Mallards

et al. 2020

Self Cite

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Domestic mallards (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) are traditionally used as a model to investigate infection dynamics and immune responses to low pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIVs) in free-living mallards. However, it is unclear whether the immune response of domestic birds reflects the response of their free-living counterparts naturally exposed to these viruses. We investigated the extent to which the innate humoral immune response was similar among (i) wild-type domestic mallards in primary and secondary infection with LPAIV H4N6 in a laboratory setting (laboratory mallards), (ii) wild-type domestic mallards naturally exposed to LPAIVs in a semi-natural setting (sentinel mallards), and (iii) free-living mallards naturally exposed to LPAIVs. We quantified innate humoral immune function by measuring non-specific natural antibodies (agglutination), complement activity (lysis), and the acute phase protein haptoglobin. We demonstrate that complement activity in the first 3 days after LPAIV exposure was higher in primary-exposed laboratory mallards than in sentinel and free-living mallards. LPAIV H4N6 likely activated the complement system and the acute phase response in primary-exposed laboratory mallards, as lysis was higher and haptoglobin lower at day 3 and 7 post-exposure compared to baseline immune function measured prior to exposure. There were no differences observed in natural antibody and haptoglobin concentrations among laboratory, sentinel, and free-living mallards in the first 3 days after LPAIV exposure. Our study demonstrates that, based on the three innate humoral immune parameters measured, domestic mallards seem an appropriate model to investigate innate immunology of their free-living counterparts, albeit the innate immune response of secondary-LPAIV exposed mallards is a better proxy for the innate immune response in pre-exposed free-living mallards than that of immunologically naïve mallards.

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“…In opposition to a consistent history of recognized infections, epidemics of new and from the past infections leads tooccasional appearance of different diseases and drastically increasing the worldwide burden of infections. Different researches of the emerging diseases exposed the evolutionary properties of the disease causing micro-organisms and their effective relationship with the environment and their hosts (Morens et al, 2004).Number of communicable diseases are considered to be zoonotic for humans (Wille et al, 2017). According to the Woolhouse et al (2005), the study demonstrated that 177 human pathogens are labeled emerging and re-emerging and in which 58% of them are zoonotic agents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emergence and Re-Emergence of Infectious Diseases: Perpetual Threat to Public Health World Wide

Sikandar¹,

Sabir

Afzal

et al. 2020

LGUJLS

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Now-a-days emerging and re-emerging infections worldwide are becoming the utmost problem for the development of mankind. Many different infections are considered to be zoonotic for humans (transferred from animals to humans). Emerging infections are those which are completely new contagion and affected new geographical locations. Infections are thought to be re-emerging that were important health problem globally or in a specific region, then diminished and once again appear and become the health issues for vast number of population. Although, zoonotic infective agents are most probably thought to be the cause of emergence and re-emergence of communicable diseases.

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Of Ducks and Men: Ecology and Evolution of a Zoonotic Pathogen in a Wild Reservoir Host

Cited by 5 publications

References 218 publications

Lessons learned and questions raised during and post-COVID-19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate

Lessons learned and questions raised during and post-COVID-19 anthropopause period in relation to the environment and climate

A Comparative Study of the Innate Humoral Immune Response to Avian Influenza Virus in Wild and Domestic Mallards

Emergence and Re-Emergence of Infectious Diseases: Perpetual Threat to Public Health World Wide

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