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.

野生动物种群自然会经历各种感染和疾病。了解它们如何在环境中循环、如何随时间演变以及不同宿主如何受到影响，是了解它们对不同动物物种的影响及其蔓延到家养动物和人类的潜力的关键。目前，我们正在经历禽流感的大规模爆发，对全球范围内的野生鸟类和商业家禽产生了重大影响。这是由一组甲型流感病毒感染引起的疾病，水禽是其自然宿主。这些病毒通常在野生水禽和滨鸟中传播，影响相对较小。然而，去年，一种​​名为 H5N1 的禽流感特定亚型的影响发生了重大变化。野生鸟类死亡率最高的是海鸟，仅苏格兰三个月内就有超过 20 万只鸟类死亡。这些是新宿主，到目前为止相对未受到影响，因此我们目前缺乏有关这种疾病如何影响这些新宿主群体的信息，阻碍了我们就可能实施或评估的任何潜在缓解策略做出明智决策的能力他们可能的成功。在这个项目中，我们有三个主要目标。首先，我们将追踪病毒在一系列不同宿主物种中随时间和空间的演变。这将告诉我们可能的传播途径，同时也帮助我们跟踪病毒在进化过程中如何变化，并识别可能改变其致病性或在物种间跳跃能力的任何病毒变化。其次，我们将关注宿主，探讨有多少比例的鸟类受到暴露并在感染后存活下来。我们将在经过多年监测的人群中进行这项工作，以便了解他们的个人生活史、年龄和迁徙路线，以帮助我们确定人群中哪些特定部分可能更容易受到传播，哪些部分在传播中更重要。最后，我们将使用我们收集的数据创建一个建模框架，该框架代表更广泛的不同物种种群，以测试不同种群对这种疾病的适应能力，并用作评估和优先考虑可采取的潜在缓解措施的工具。尽量减少对宿主人口的影响并限制未来疾病的传播。