2023-10-25 07:00:06
Press release
Avian influenza: highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses multiply and spread (also) in the feathers of ducks.
What are the biological mechanisms that can explain the very specific role that web-footed birds play in the epidemiology of highly pathogenic avian influenza? A study published in “ Emerging Microbes & Infections » by Toulouse researchers from UMR IHAP (ENVT/INRAE – Chair of Biosafety & Avian Health) sheds new light on viral tropism and the ways of dissemination of the virus in ducks.
In a study recently published in the international journal “ Emerging Microbes & Infections » Toulouse researchers from UMR IHAP (ENVT/INRAE – Chair of Avian Biosafety and Health) show that duck feathers constitute an alternative source of multiplication and diffusion of highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses (HAVIV) in the environment. Through a multidisciplinary approach, which combines the analysis of cases of infection in the field and experimental infections carried out in the laboratory in collaboration with the Animal Health Research Center (CRESA) in Barcelona, the researchers demonstrated that the feathers of Ducks infected with HPAI of the H5 subtype produce and massively release infectious viral particles by desquamation of the epithelium. These viral particles are found in association with feather debris in airborne matrices (dust/aerosols) from infected farms. This route of excretion seems important in palmipeds, but marginal in galliforms, such as chickens.
In addition to the digestive and respiratory excretion routes, known for decades, these data lead us to reassess the risk linked to the diffusion and persistence of avian influenza viruses and therefore the control strategies, at a time when vaccination is massively applied in duck farms in France.
The debris released by feather follicles constitutes an additional source of diffusion of avian influenza viruses in the environment, in addition to particles of respiratory or digestive origin.
Nicolas Gaide1, Fabien Filaire1,2, Kateri Bertran3, Manuela Crispo1, Malorie Dirat1, Aurélie Secula1, Charlotte Foret-Lucas1, Bruno Payré4, Albert Perlas3, Guillermo Cantero3, Natàlia Majó3, Sébastien Soubies1 & Jean-Luc Guérin1
1IHAP, University of Toulouse, INRAE, ENVT, Toulouse, France
2THESEO France, LanXess Biosecurity, LanXess Group, Laval, France
3IRTA-UAB in Animal Health. Animal Health Research Center (CReSA). Campus of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Bellaterra, Catalonia. Spain
4Center for Electron Microscopy Applied to Biology, University of Toulouse, France.
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