Live bird markets in Bangladesh as a potentially important source for Avian Influenza Virus transmission

Publication date: Available online 2 May 2018 Source:Preventive Veterinary Medicine Author(s): Mohammad Mahmudul Hassan, Md. Ahasanul Hoque, Beata Ujvari, Marcel Klaassen Live bird markets (LBM) are important for trading poultry in many developing countries where they are being considered hotspots of Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) prevalence and contamination. An active surveillance for Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) was conducted on four species of LBM birds (chickens, ducks, quails and pigeons) from 10 of the largest LBM in Chittagong, Bangladesh, and two species of peri-domestic wild birds (house crow and Asian pied starling) in their direct vicinity from November 2012 until September 2016. Our aim was to identify the scale and annual pattern of AIV circulation in both the LBM birds and the two per-domestic wild bird species living in close proximity of the LBM. In the latter two species, the annual pattern in AIV antibody prevalence was additionally investigated. A total of 4770 LBM birds and 1119 peri-domestic wild birds were sampled. We used rt-PCR for detection of the AIV M-gene and AIV subtypes H5, H7 and H9 from swab samples. We used c-ELISA for AIV antibody detection from serum samples of peri-domestic wild birds. Average AIV prevalence among the four LBM species varied between 16 and 28%, whereas no AIV was detected in peri-domestic wild birds by rt-PCR. In all LBM species we found significantly higher AIV prevalence in winter compared to summer. A similar pattern ...
Source: Preventive Veterinary Medicine - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research