Spain develops a project to control avian influenza
Three institutions in Spain will join forces to find out the influence of microbita in preventing bird flu being transmitted from wild birds to poultry farms in order to prevent outbreaks in commercial units. The Health and Biotechnology Research Group (SaBio) of the Gaming Resources Research Institute (IREC - CSIC, UCLM, JCCM), in coordination with the Animal Health Research Center of the Agrifood Research and Technology Institute of Catalonia (IRTA-CReSA) and the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development (NEIKER) are already collaborating for almost a decade on projects regarding biosecurity and prevention of bird flu in Spanish poultry farms but this time will implement a larger project in this field.
Overall, the INFLUOMA Project will investigate how microbiota influences the susceptibility of wild and domestic birds to avian influenza viruses. Building on previous findings, including the fact that wild birds infected with avian influenza also carry other pathogens, such as Salmonella or Mycobacterium avium, whose coinfection can have different effects; that wild birds that live on farms provide their connection to other farms and swamps and that there are individual differences in the susceptibility of domestic birds to infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza.
In the INFLUOMA Project, the researchers will combine studies in wild birds (waterfowl and sparrows) and poultry (fast and slow-growing chickens in an industrial and ecological regime in a natural environment) and laboratory experiments. On the one hand, they will use a new satellite tracking technology on a wild water bird model, the laughing seagull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus), to assess the effect of avian influenza infection in combination with other pathogens on its mobility.
On the other hand, they will use a combination of field sample analysis and laboratory experiments to study whether the effect of the microbiota, subject to the rural or urban environment in which sparrows live, determines their susceptibility to avian influenza infection.
“These studies will reveal the keys to better prevention of avian influenza outbreaks on farms and will help us at the same time as a model to better understand the current drastic changes in the climate and environments in which wild and domestic birds inhabit, and especially food, influence the transmission and outcome of infectious diseases”, conclude the researchers, quoted by the Avicultura Industrial magazine.
The commensal microbiota plays an important role in health, being part of the defense against pathogens or, on the contrary, promoting infections. The composition of the microbiome varies by species, diet and habitat, and is altered during infections, as is the case with avian influenza viruses.
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