Fish and Wildlife Disease Investigation and Surveillance

USGS is creating spatially and temporally explicit inputs to improve avian influenza transmission risk modeling. This project places special emphasis on wild bird distribution and abundance models as well as avian influenza prevalence models.

Recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza have impacted a dramatically wider range of bird hosts than ever before. USGS researchers are working to identify which bird species have been exposed, which have developed immune responses, and how these species may influence viral ecology to inform risk management activities.

USGS researchers are using telemetry to improve our understanding of how wild birds move throughout their environments and the potential implications for disease transmission within and to domestic poultry.

Low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) viruses naturally occur in wild birds and are rarely fatal. Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses are highly contagious, spread rapidly, are often fatal to poultry, and have been responsible for worldwide outbreaks. Together, LPAI and HPAI are generally referred to as either avian influenza viruses (AIVs) or "the bird flu."

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.

This project focuses on improving our understanding of how current and previous infection with avian influenza viruses impact the movement ecology of wild bird species.

This project focuses on understanding the prevalence and strains of avian influenza viruses in the aquatic environment and how this compares to those circulating within wild birds in the same area.

Understanding disease systems requires an understanding of the basic ecology of host species. USGS is involved in global efforts to explore the movements of bird species that are hosts of avian influenza as well as the potential impacts of changing landscapes on avian influenza.

Southeast Asia has long been the epicenter of AIV emergence. However, as demonstrated by H5NX, these viruses can quickly reach global spread and have significant impacts on poultry production and human health. Researchers at the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center have two ongoing efforts funded by the National Science Foundation to help improve our understanding of AIV emergence, spread, and...

Southeast Asia has long been the epicenter of AIV emergence. However, as demonstrated by H5NX, these viruses can quickly reach global spread and have significant impacts on poultry production and human health. Researchers at the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center have two ongoing efforts funded by the National Science Foundation to help improve our understanding of AIV emergence, spread, and...

Emergence of avian influenza viruses with the potential to be highly pathogenic to poultry, wild birds, and humans cause serious concern for the global economic and public health sectors. Researchers at the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center study multiple aspects of avian influenza viruses in wild birds as well as their implications for implications for commercial agriculture with a special...

About the Research The Functional and Molecular Bioassay Core Technology Team (CTT) as part of the Environmental Health Program utilizes reporter assays, quantitative gene expression analyses, and high-throughput sequencing methods to produce functional endpoints across a broad scope of environmental topics and sample matrices.