Department of Public Health, College of Health Science, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung City807, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei City106, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Environ Sci Technol. 2022 Nov 15;56(22):15365-15376. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c04528. Epub 2022 Oct 26.
Outbreaks of avian influenza virus (AIV) have raised public concerns recently. Airborne AIV has been evaluated in live poultry markets and case farms; however, no study has discussed airborne AIV in ambient air in the winter habitats of migratory birds. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate airborne AIV, specifically H5, H7, and H9, in a critical winter habitat of migratory birds and assess the factors influencing airborne AIV transmission in ambient air to provide novel insights into the epidemiology of avian influenza. A total of 357 ambient air samples were collected in the Aogu Wetland, Taiwan, Republic of China, between October 2017 and December 2019 and analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The effects of environmental factors including air pollutants, meteorological factors, and the species of the observed migratory birds on the concentration of airborne AIV were also analyzed. To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate the relationship between airborne AIV in ambient air and the influence factors in the winter habitats of migratory birds, demonstrating the benefits of environmental sampling for infectious disease epidemiology. The positive rate of airborne H7 (12%) was higher than that of H5 (8%) and H9 (10%). The daily mean temperature and daily maximum temperature had a significant negative correlation with influenza A, H7, and H9. Cold air masses and bird migration were significantly associated with airborne H9 and H7, respectively. In addition, we observed a significant correlation between AIV and the number of pintails, common teals, Indian spot-billed ducks, northern shovelers, Eurasian wigeons, tufted ducks, pied avocets, black-faced spoonbills, and great cormorants. In conclusion, we demonstrated the potential for alternative surveillance approaches (monitoring bird species) as an indicator for influenza-related risks and identified cold air masses and the presence of specific bird species as potential drivers of the presence and/or the airborne concentration of AIV.
最近，禽流感病毒 (AIV) 的爆发引起了公众的关注。已在活禽市场和病例农场评估了空气传播的 AIV；然而，尚无研究讨论候鸟冬季栖息地环境空气中的空气传播 AIV。因此，本研究旨在评估候鸟关键冬季栖息地中的空气传播 AIV（特别是 H5、H7 和 H9），并评估影响环境空气中空气传播 AIV 传播的因素，为禽流感的流行病学提供新的见解。本研究于 2017 年 10 月至 2019 年 12 月期间在台湾奥古湿地共采集了 357 个环境空气样本，并使用实时定量聚合酶链反应进行分析。还分析了环境因素（包括空气污染物、气象因素和观察到的候鸟种类）对空气传播 AIV 浓度的影响。据我们所知，这是首次研究环境空气中空气传播 AIV 与候鸟冬季栖息地影响因素之间的关系，证明了环境采样对传染病流行病学的益处。空气传播 H7（12%）的阳性率高于 H5（8%）和 H9（10%）。日平均温度和日最高温度与流感 A、H7 和 H9 呈显著负相关。冷空气团和鸟类迁徙与空气传播 H9 和 H7 分别显著相关。此外，我们观察到 AIV 与针尾鸭、普通秋沙鸭、印度斑嘴鸭、北杓鹬、花脸鸭、绿头鸭、黑嘴鸥和黑脸琵鹭的数量之间存在显著相关性。总之，我们证明了替代监测方法（监测鸟类物种）作为与流感相关风险的指标的潜力，并确定冷空气团和特定鸟类的存在可能是 AIV 存在和/或空气传播浓度的潜在驱动因素。
