Analysis of geographic location and pathways for influenza A virus infection of commercial upland game bird and conventional poultry farms in the United States of America
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
BMC veterinary research
Abstract
Avian influenza (AI) is an infectious viral disease that affects several species and has zoonotic
potential. Due to its associated health and economic repercussions, minimizing AI outbreaks is important. However,
most control measures are generic and mostly target pathways important for the conventional poultry farms
producing chickens, turkeys, and eggs and may not target other pathways that may be specific to the upland
game bird sector. The goal of this study is to provide evidence to support the development of novel strategies for
sector-specific AI control by comparing and contrasting practices and potential pathways for spread in upland
game bird farms with those for conventional poultry farms in the United States. Farm practices and processes,
seasonality of activities, geographic location and inter-farm distance were analyzed across the sectors. All the
identified differences were framed and discussed in the context of their associated pathways for virus introduction
into the farm and subsequent between-farm spread.
Results: Differences stemming from production systems and seasonality, inter-farm distance and farm densities
were evident and these could influence both fomite-mediated and local-area spread risks. Upland game bird farms
operate under a single, independent owner rather than being contracted with or owned by a company with other
farms as is the case with conventional poultry. The seasonal marketing of upland game birds, largely driven by
hunting seasons, implies that movements are seasonal and customer-vendor dynamics vary between industry
groups. Farm location analysis revealed that, on average, an upland game bird premises was 15.42 km away from
the nearest neighboring premises with birds compared to 3.74 km for turkey premises. Compared to turkey
premises, the average poultry farm density in a radius of 10 km of an upland game bird premises was less than a
half, and turkey premises were 3.8 times (43.5% compared with 11.5%) more likely to fall within a control area
during the 2015 Minnesota outbreak.
Conclusions: We conclude that the existing differences in the seasonality of production, isolated geographic
location and epidemiological seclusion of farms influence AI spread dynamics and therefore disease control
measures should be informed by these and other factors to achieve success.
Description
Keywords
Influenza a virus, Infection pathways, Epidemiological contacts, Biosecurity, Upland game birds
Citation
Ssematimba, A., St Charles, K. M., Bonney, P. J., Malladi, S., Culhane, M., Goldsmith, T. J., ... & Cardona, C. J. (2019). Analysis of geographic location and pathways for influenza A virus infection of commercial upland game bird and conventional poultry farms in the United States of America. BMC veterinary research, 15(1), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12917-019-1876-y