Experimental Infection of North American Birds with the New York 1999 Strain of West Nile Virus

By N. Komar, S. Langevin, Steven R. Hinten, N. Nemeth, Eric A. Edwards, D. Hettler, B. Davis, R. Bowen, M. Bunning. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2003

1,242 citations recorded by the source corpus.

To evaluate transmission dynamics, we exposed 25 bird species to West Nile virus (WNV) by infectious mosquito bite. We monitored viremia titers, clinical outcome, WNV shedding (cloacal and oral), seroconversion, virus persistence in organs, and susceptibility to oral and contact transmission. Passeriform and charadriiform birds were more reservoir competent (a derivation of viremia data) than other species tested. The five most competent species were passerines: Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata), Common Grackle (Quiscalus quiscula), House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus), American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos), and House Sparrow (Passer domesticus). Death occurred in eight species. Cloacal shedding of WNV was observed in 17 of 24 species, and oral shedding in 12 of 14 species. We observed contact transmission among four species and oral in five species. Persistent WNV infections were found in tissues of 16 surviving birds. Our observations shed light on transmission ecology of WNV and will benefit surveillance and control programs.

Subfields: Infectious Diseases, Parasitology, Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7963efdbf95a1c7d80225a1e96b3f1e294e20336

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Infectious Diseases

1. Richard S. Ostfeld
2. Felicia Keesing
3. L. Petersen
4. A. Kilpatrick
5. Pieter T. J. Johnson
6. T. Young

In Parasitology

1. C. Brown
2. M. Brown
3. Richard S. Ostfeld
4. Felicia Keesing
5. J. Owen
6. F. Moore
7. A. Kilpatrick
8. M. Boyce

In Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health

1. Richard S. Ostfeld
2. Felicia Keesing
3. L. Petersen
4. Pieter T. J. Johnson
5. T. Young

Citations in the corpus

• Biodiversity Loss Affects Global Disease Ecology (2009, neutral): “…competence varies widely: American robins (Turdus migratorius) and American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are highly efficient virus transmitters; rock doves (Columba livia) and Canada geese (Branta canadensis) and other wading birds are very poor hosts (Komar et al. 2003, Reisen et al. 2005).”
• Epidemiology and Transmission Dynamics of West Nile Virus Disease (2005, neutral): “In laboratory studies, speeies in the orders Passeriformes (song birds), Charadriiformes (shorebirds), Strigiformes (owls), and Faleoniformes (hawks) developed viremia levels sufficient to infect most feeding mosquitoes, whereas species of Columbiformes (pigeons), Piciformes (woodpeckers), and Anser”
• ECOLOGY OF WEST NILE VIRUS TRANSMISSION AND ITS IMPACT ON BIRDS IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE (2007, background): “For WNV, it can be quantifi ed for an individual as the sum (over the viremic period) of the daily probabilities that a mosquito biting that bird will become infectious for WNV (Komar et al. 2003).”
• Group size and ectoparasitism affect daily survival probability in a colonial bird (2004, background): “Ecologically similar viruses are known to reduce survival in other birds (Nuttall 1997; Komar et al. 2003).”
• An Update on the Potential of North American Mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) to Transmit West Nile Virus (2005, background): “Viremias in the 20 chickens used to expose mosquitoes to WNV ranged from 106.0 to 107.5 PFU/ml of blood, viremias consistent with those found in many North American birds (Komar et al. 2003).”
• West Nile Virus: Review of the Literature (2013, background): “Postulated West Nile virus neuroinvasive mechanisms include (1) direct viral crossing of the blood-brain barrier due to cytokine-mediated increased vascular permeability; (2) passage through the endothelium of the blood-brain barrier; (3) a Trojan horse mechanism in which infected tissue macrophages”
• West Nile virus: pending crisis for greater sage-grouse (2004, methodology): “Primer and probe combinations (DNA Technologies Inc., Coralville, IA, USA) were then synthesized (Lanciotti et al. 2000; Lanciotti & Kerst 2001).”
• Effects of Host Diversity on Infectious Disease (2012, background): “The different blood-meal hosts for mosquitoes vary dramatically in their ability to support replication by the pathogen, the length of time they remain infected, and their probability of transmitting virus to feeding mosquitoes (Kilpatrick et al. 2006b, Komar et al. 2003).”
• Migrating Birds as Dispersal Vehicles for West Nile Virus (2006, background): “Experimental infection studies show birds, particularly passerines, may be infectious for a period of 1–6 days (Komar et al., 2003).”