ECOFLU : Understanding the ecology of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in wild bird populations

ECOFLU：了解野生鸟类中高致病性禽流感的生态学

• 批准号: NE/Y001591/1
• 负责人: Emma Cunningham
• 金额: $ 104.57万
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FY001591%2F1
• 关键词: ECOFLU; Understanding; ecology; Highly; Pathogenic

Wildlife populations naturally experience a wide range of infections and disease. Understanding how they circulate in the environment, how they are evolving over time and how different hosts are affected is key to understanding both their impact on different animal species and their potential to spill-over into domesticated animals and humans. We are currently experiencing a major outbreak of Avian Influenza that is having a major impact both on wild birds and commercial poultry at a global scale. This is a disease caused by infection by a group of Influenza A type viruses of which water birds are the natural host. These viruses usually circulate in wild waterfowl and shorebirds with relatively little impact. However, the past year has seen a significant change in the impact of one particular subtype of avian influenza called H5N1. Mortality reports in wild birds have been highest in seabirds with over 200,000 dead birds reported over a three month period in Scotland alone. These are novel hosts that up until this point have been relatively unaffected so we currently lack information about how this disease is impacting in these novel host populations, hindering our ability to make informed decisions about any potential mitigation strategies that might be put in place or evaluate their likely success. In this project we have three main objectives. Firstly, we will track the evolution of the virus over time and space across a range of different host species. This will tell us about possible routes of transmission but also help us track how the virus is changing as it evolves and to identify any viral changes that may alter its pathogenicity or its ability to jump between species. Secondly, we will focus on the hosts and explore what proportion of birds are exposed and survive infection. We will do this in populations that have been monitored over many years so their individual life-histories, age, and migration routes are known to help us identify which whether particular parts of the population may be more vulnerable or more important in transmission. Finally we will use the data we are collecting to create a modelling framework that represents the wider population of different species to test how resilient different populations might be to this disease and to use as a tool to evaluate and prioritize potential mitigations that can be put in place to minimise any impact on host populations and limit future disease spread.

野生动植物种群自然会经历广泛的感染和疾病。了解它们如何在环境中循环，随着时间的流逝如何发展以及如何影响不同的宿主是了解它们对不同动物物种的影响以及它们溢出到驯养动物和人类的潜力的关键。我们目前正在经历禽流感的重大爆发，这些禽流感在全球范围内对野生鸟类和商业家禽产生重大影响。这是由一组流感的一种疾病引起的一种类型的病毒，其中水只鸟是天然宿主。这些病毒通常在野生水禽和海岸鸟类中循环，影响相对较小。但是，过去一年，一种称为H5N1的禽流感的特定亚型的影响发生了重大变化。野生鸟类的死亡率报告在海鸟中最高，仅在苏格兰，有超过200,000只死鸟在三个月内报道。这些是新颖的宿主，直到这一点一直没有受到影响，因此我们目前缺乏有关这种疾病在这些新型宿主人群中如何影响的信息，阻碍了我们就可能采取或评估其可能成功的任何潜在缓解策略做出明智的决定的能力。在这个项目中，我们有三个主要目标。首先，我们将在各种不同宿主物种中跟踪病毒的演变。这将告诉我们有关传播的可能途径，也可以帮助我们跟踪病毒随着它的发展而变化，并确定可能改变其致病性或在物种之间跳跃的能力的任何病毒变化。其次，我们将专注于宿主，并探索鸟类的比例暴露并在感染中生存。我们将在多年来受到监控的人群中这样做，以便已知他们的个人寿命，年龄和迁移路线，以帮助我们确定哪些人口的特定部分在传播中可能更易受伤害或更重要。最后，我们将使用我们要收集的数据来创建一个建模框架，该框架代表了不同物种的更广泛的种群，以测试不同种群如何对这种疾病进行弹性，并用作评估和优先级的潜在缓解措施，以最大程度地减少对宿主人群的任何影响并限制未来疾病的蔓延。