Avian Influenza Dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay Region
This project focuses on understanding the forces driving the risk of avian influenza transmission from wild waterfowl to domestic poultry within the Chesapeake Bay region.
While avian influenza presents a global threat, the mechanisms for transmission across the wild bird – domestic poultry interface differ based upon region, agricultural practices, wild bird distributions, species susceptibility, and other risk factors. Due to the importance of the poultry industry to the Chesapeake Bay region, understanding the spatio-temporal patterns of avian influenza transmission risk could be very useful in concentrating disease monitoring efforts and planning biosecurity tactics.
To help understand the factors driving local transmission risk we have several ongoing studies. One such effort is our work monitoring waterfowl use of small water retention ponds closely associated with commercial poultry farms. Understanding what waterfowl species use these waterbodies and when helps provide an indication of the risk these waterbodies pose from a disease transmission perspective and may lead to identifying risk mitigation strategies.
Additionally, we are working with numerous partners throughout the region to consolidate various scientific and citizen survey datasets along with available telemetry data to create regionally specific waterfowl distribution models via an integrated species distribution modeling framework. While models are available that describe distribution based on wide-scale processes, building locally tailored models is an important next step to identifying site-specific disease transmission risk.
Finally, efforts are underway to incorporate all of these factors along with site specific agricultural practices and disease characteristics to model fine scale transmission risk across the Chesapeake Bay region.
This project focuses on understanding the forces driving the risk of avian influenza transmission from wild waterfowl to domestic poultry within the Chesapeake Bay region.
While avian influenza presents a global threat, the mechanisms for transmission across the wild bird – domestic poultry interface differ based upon region, agricultural practices, wild bird distributions, species susceptibility, and other risk factors. Due to the importance of the poultry industry to the Chesapeake Bay region, understanding the spatio-temporal patterns of avian influenza transmission risk could be very useful in concentrating disease monitoring efforts and planning biosecurity tactics.
To help understand the factors driving local transmission risk we have several ongoing studies. One such effort is our work monitoring waterfowl use of small water retention ponds closely associated with commercial poultry farms. Understanding what waterfowl species use these waterbodies and when helps provide an indication of the risk these waterbodies pose from a disease transmission perspective and may lead to identifying risk mitigation strategies.
Additionally, we are working with numerous partners throughout the region to consolidate various scientific and citizen survey datasets along with available telemetry data to create regionally specific waterfowl distribution models via an integrated species distribution modeling framework. While models are available that describe distribution based on wide-scale processes, building locally tailored models is an important next step to identifying site-specific disease transmission risk.
Finally, efforts are underway to incorporate all of these factors along with site specific agricultural practices and disease characteristics to model fine scale transmission risk across the Chesapeake Bay region.