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Blue-winged Teal and Cross Continental Avian Influenza Transmission Active

By Eastern Ecological Science Center March 31, 2020

This project aims to improve our understanding of the migratory ecology of Blue-winged Teal and how this may impact the ability of this species to transmit avian influenza or other pathogens across the wild bird – domestic poultry interface.This project aims to improve our understanding of the migratory ecology of Blue-winged Teal and how this may impact the ability of this species to transmit avian influenza or other pathogens across the wild bird – domestic poultry interface.

The Challenge: USGS scientists and their collaborators recently identified that Blue-winged Teal may play a critical role in the transmission of blood-borne parasites between the United States and the Neotropics. Meanwhile, researchers have also identified a wide variety of avian influenza viruses when sampling migratory Blue-winged Teal. Despite the known ability of this species to carry avian influenza and the potential role they may serve in cross continental disease transmission, little work has been done to examine the migratory ecology of Blue-winged Teal and their spatio-temporal overlap with domestic poultry.

The Science: This work has focused on understanding 3 key factors: (1) the migration and stopover ecology of Blue-winged Teal, (2) the exposure of these birds to domestic poultry during migration, and (3) the spatio-temporal association of Blue-winged Teal migration with avian influenza outbreaks. We have already started to analyze paired telemetry and disease sampling datasets using advanced statistical approaches. Our most recent results confirm that transmission potential is dependent upon stopover duration; but more work is required as we seek to better understand the dynamics at play.

The Future: Our future work will include investigations into the spatio-temporal relationship between Blue-winged Teal and domestic poultry as well as various other aspects of disease ecology and transmission dynamics.

A male Blue-winged Teal in flight Telemetry tracks for 42 Blue-winged Teal A male Blue-winged Teal

Below are other science projects associated with this project.

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Blue-winged Teal flying with a satellite transmitter

Tracking Data for Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)

Available here are tracking data of Blue-winged Teal, a duck species that breeds throughout much of North America and whose wintering range includes neotropical areas of the Caribbean and Central and South America, thus providing a migratory link between the continents of North and South America. These data were collected to better understand the timing and patterns of migratory movement of Blue...
By
Alaska Science Center
link

Tracking Data for Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors)

Available here are tracking data of Blue-winged Teal, a duck species that breeds throughout much of North America and whose wintering range includes neotropical areas of the Caribbean and Central and South America, thus providing a migratory link between the continents of North and South America. These data were collected to better understand the timing and patterns of migratory movement of Blue...
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Below are publications associated with this project.

Waterfowl occurrence and residence time as indicators of H5 and H7 avian influenza in North American Poultry

Avian influenza (AI) affects wild aquatic birds and poses hazards to human health, food security, and wildlife conservation globally. Accordingly, there is a recognized need for new methods and tools to help quantify the dynamic interaction between wild bird hosts and commercial poultry. Using satellite-marked waterfowl, we applied Bayesian joint hierarchical modeling to concurrently model specie
By
Ecosystems, Eastern Ecological Science Center, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Alaska Science Center

Below are partners associated with this project.

Environment and Climate Change Canada, Ecotoxicology and Wildlife Health Division

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries

State Fish and Wildlife Agencies

University of Maryland