Avian influenza spillover into poultry: Environmental influences and biosecurity protections

With the continued spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), understanding the complex dynamics of virus transfer at the wild – agriculture interface is paramount. Spillover events (i.e., virus transfer from wild birds into poultry) are related to proximity to infected wild bird populations and environmental conditions. By accounting for such dynamics, we can take a combined approach to assess the impacts of biosecurity measures implemented at poultry farms while simultaneously accounting for their local risk levels. We implemented a Bayesian joint-likelihood logistic regression for the Continental U.S. comparing models of spatiotemporal risk according to land use, weather, and predicted waterfowl distributions followed by integrating a farm-level case-control questionnaire dataset focused on identifying trends in HPAI spillover risk associated with a farm's biosecurity practices. We found that estimates of waterfowl abundance, along with mean precipitation and temperature during winter, were most correlated with spatiotemporal HPAI risk. Additionally, we identified multiple biosecurity practices associated with reduced risk to HPAI, where the strongest relationships were related to litter decontamination treatments, vehicle wash stations, and avoiding shared dead-bird disposal sites with other farms. This model broadly guides surveillance of HPAI in wild and domestic populations, identifying when and where we are most likely to see increased instances of the virus while also providing insights into how poultry farms can better protect themselves from risk.