Tropism of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5 Viruses from the 2020/2021 Epizootic in Wild Ducks and Geese

Valentina Caliendo; Lonneke Leijten; Marco van de Bildt; Evelien Germeraad; Ron A.M. Fouchier; Nancy Beerens; Thijs Kuiken

doi:10.3390/v14020280

Tropism of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5 Viruses from the 2020/2021 Epizootic in Wild Ducks and Geese

Valentina Caliendo^*, Lonneke Leijten, Marco van de Bildt, Evelien Germeraad, Ron A.M. Fouchier, Nancy Beerens, Thijs Kuiken

^*Corresponding author for this work

Virology

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Abstract

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks have become increasingly frequent in wild bird populations and have caused mass mortality in many wild bird species. The 2020/2021 epizootic was the largest and most deadly ever reported in Europe, and many new bird species tested positive for HPAI virus for the first time. This study investigated the tropism of HPAI virus in wild birds. We tested the pattern of virus attachment of 2020 H5N8 virus to intestinal and respiratory tissues of key bird species; and characterized pathology of naturally infected Eurasian wigeons (Mareca penelope) and barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). This study determined that 2020 H5N8 virus had a high level of attachment to the intestinal epithelium (enterotropism) of dabbling ducks and geese and retained attachment to airway epithelium (respirotropism). Natural HPAI 2020 H5 virus infection in Eurasian wigeons and barnacle geese also showed a high level of neurotropism, as both species presented with brain lesions that co-localized with virus antigen expression. We concluded that the combination of respirotropism, neurotropism, and possibly enterotropism, con-tributed to the successful adaptation of 2020/2021 HPAI H5 viruses to wild waterbird populations.

Original language	English
Article number	280
Journal	Viruses
Volume	14
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.3390/v14020280
Publication status	Published - Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme DELTAFLU, grant number 727922. Acknowledgments: We thank Peter van Run, Oanh Vuong, Rachel Scheuer and Theo Bestebroer for screening surveillance samples and associated lab work. We thank the pathology staff of Wa-geningen Bioveterinary Research for necropsy and sample collection of dead wild birds.

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme DELTAFLU, grant number 727922.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

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Tropism of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5 Viruses from the 2020,2021 Epizootic in Wild Ducks and GeeseFinal published version, 926 KBLicence: CC BY

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title = "Tropism of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5 Viruses from the 2020/2021 Epizootic in Wild Ducks and Geese",

abstract = "Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks have become increasingly frequent in wild bird populations and have caused mass mortality in many wild bird species. The 2020/2021 epizootic was the largest and most deadly ever reported in Europe, and many new bird species tested positive for HPAI virus for the first time. This study investigated the tropism of HPAI virus in wild birds. We tested the pattern of virus attachment of 2020 H5N8 virus to intestinal and respiratory tissues of key bird species; and characterized pathology of naturally infected Eurasian wigeons (Mareca penelope) and barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis). This study determined that 2020 H5N8 virus had a high level of attachment to the intestinal epithelium (enterotropism) of dabbling ducks and geese and retained attachment to airway epithelium (respirotropism). Natural HPAI 2020 H5 virus infection in Eurasian wigeons and barnacle geese also showed a high level of neurotropism, as both species presented with brain lesions that co-localized with virus antigen expression. We concluded that the combination of respirotropism, neurotropism, and possibly enterotropism, con-tributed to the successful adaptation of 2020/2021 HPAI H5 viruses to wild waterbird populations.",

author = "Valentina Caliendo and Lonneke Leijten and {van de Bildt}, Marco and Evelien Germeraad and Fouchier, {Ron A.M.} and Nancy Beerens and Thijs Kuiken",

note = "Funding Information: This research was funded by the European Union?s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme DELTAFLU, grant number 727922. Acknowledgments: We thank Peter van Run, Oanh Vuong, Rachel Scheuer and Theo Bestebroer for screening surveillance samples and associated lab work. We thank the pathology staff of Wa-geningen Bioveterinary Research for necropsy and sample collection of dead wild birds. Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by the European Union{\textquoteright}s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme DELTAFLU, grant number 727922. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.",

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AU - Kuiken, Thijs

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Tropism of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5 Viruses from the 2020/2021 Epizootic in Wild Ducks and Geese

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