2023-10-31 06:30:41
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 by Toulouse researchers sheds new light on viral tropism and the ways of dissemination of the virus in ducks.
In recently published study 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 ( VIAHP) 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 of Barcelona, the researchers demonstrated that the feathers of ducks infected with HPIV 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.
Credit photo : INRAE 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. © IHAP, ENVT-INRAE
Source : INRAE
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