Surveillance for highly pathogenic avian influenza in migratory shorebirds at the terminus of the East Asian - Australasian flyway

Authors: Langstaff IG, McKenzie JS, Poland R, Reed CEM, Cork SC, Stanislawek WL
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 57, Issue 3, pp 160-165, Jun 2009
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Avian, Wildlife
Subject Terms: Viral, Notifiable organisms/exotic disease, Zoonosis, Infectious disease, Biosecurity, Disease surveillance, Disease transmission, Epidemiology, Disease/defect
Article class: Scientific Article

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Abstract: AIM: To determine if migratory birds arriving in New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere spring of 2004 were infected with the highly pathogenic avian influenza (AI) virus, H5N1.
METHODS: Cloacal and faecal samples were collected from migratory red knots following their arrival in New Zealand in October 2004. Two species of resident sympatric birds, wrybill and mallard duck, were sampled prior to, and following, the arrival of migratory birds.
RESULTS: No AI viruses were isolated from migratory or resident shorebirds. Non-pathogenic AI viruses were isolated from six resident mallard ducks, comprising the endemic subtypes H4 (n=2), H7 (non-pathogenic), H10, and H11 (n=2).
CONCLUSIONS: Highly pathogenic AI H5N1 virus was not detected in migratory shorebirds or sympatric water birds in the Firth of Thames, New Zealand, in 2004–2005, despite the possible proximity of migratory birds to outbreaks of the disease in East Asia in 2004.
KEY WORDS: Surveillance, highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1 virus, low-pathogenic avian influenza, migratory shorebirds, East Asian-Australasian Flyway, mallard ducks

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