scholarly journals Efficacy of an automated laser for reducing wild bird visits to the free range area of a poultry farm

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin R. W. Elbers ◽  
José L. Gonzales
Keyword(s):  
Wild Bird ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Video Camera ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Class Iii ◽  
Free Range ◽  
Reservoir Hosts ◽  
Range Study ◽  
Wild Waterfowl

AbstractIn the Netherlands, free-range layer farms as opposed to indoor layer farms, are at greater risk with regard to the introduction of avian influenza viruses (AIVs). Wild waterfowl are the natural reservoir hosts of AIVs, and play a major role in their transmission to poultry by contaminating free-range layer areas. The laser as a wild bird repellent has been in use since the 1970s, in particular around airfields to reduce bird-strike. The efficacy of laser for reducing wild bird numbers in and around free-range poultry areas has however not been investigated. During the autumn–winter, wild bird visits to the free-range area of a layer farm was surveilled by video-camera for a month without laser, followed by a month with laser. The automated laser (Class-III B qualification) was operated in two separate areas (i) within the poultry free-range area that directly bordered the poultry barn between 5:00 p.m. and 10:00 a.m. when poultry were absent (free-range study area, size 1.5 ha), and (ii) in surrounding grass pastures between 10:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. The overall (all bird species combined) efficacy of the laser for reducing the rate of wild birds visiting the free-range study area was 98.2%, and for the Orders Anseriformes and Passeriformes, respectively, was 99.7% and 96.1%. With the laser in operation, the overall exposure time of the free-range area to wild bird visits, but specifically to the Order Anseriformes, was massively reduced. It can be concluded that the Class-III B laser is highly proficient at keeping wild birds, in particular waterfowl, away from the free-range area of layer farms situated along a winter migration flyway.

scholarly journals Efficacy of Using a Laser Device to Reduce Wild (Water)Birds Visits to the Free-range area of a Layer Farm Situated in an Avian Influenza Hotspot-region in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armin Elbers ◽  
Jose Gonzales
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Exposure Time ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Tyto Alba ◽  
Free Range ◽  
Water Birds ◽  
Layer Farm ◽  
Range Study

Abstract Free-range layer farms have a significantly higher risk of introduction of avian influenza viruses (AIV) compared to indoor layer farms. Wild water birds, natural reservoir of AIV, likely play a role in the transmission of AIV to chickens by contaminating the farms’ free-range area. The use of a laser as a repellent device for wild birds has been studied since the 1970s, in particular around airfields as bird-strike prevention, but its use at poultry farms to keep wild birds away from the surroundings of the poultry barn has not been studied. Part (1.5 ha) of the free-range area of a layer farm that directly boarded the poultry barn was equipped with a video-camera recording system. Visits of wild birds to this free-range study area were recorded for a month without and subsequently a month with a Class-III B laser in operation in the winter period. The laser was operated in the free-range study area between 5:00 PM and 10:00 AM, chickens were present in the free-range study area between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM. The laser was operated in surrounding grass pastures between 10:00 AM and 5:00 PM. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and Western barn owls (Tyto alba) visited the free-range study area between sunset and sunrise; Blackbirds (Turdus merula), Western yellow wagtails (Motacilla flava), White wagtails (Motacilla alba), Common Moor-hen (Gallimula chloropus) and Common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus) visited the free-range study area between sunrise and 10:00 AM. The overall (all bird species) efficacy of the laser for reducing the rate of wild birds visiting the free-range study area was 98.2 %. This efficacy was for birds of the Order Anseriformes 99.7 % and for birds of the Order Passeriformes 96.1 %. The overall exposure time of the free-range study area to wild birds (all species) was 617 times lower with the laser in operation compared to a situation in which the laser was not in operation. Exposure time to wild birds of the Order Anseriformes – known as bird flu risk species - was 2,320 times lower compared to the situation without the laser in operation. Summarizing, it can be concluded that the laser equipment used in this study was highly proficient in keeping wild birds – in particular wild ducks - away from the free-range study area of the layer farm.

Long-term Monitoring for Avian Influenza Viruses in Wild Bird Species in Italy

2003 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 107-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. De Marco ◽  
E. Foni ◽  
L. Campitelli ◽  
E. Raffini ◽  
M. Delogu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Avian Influenza Viruses ◽  
Long Term Monitoring ◽  
Term Monitoring

The Single E627K Amino Acid Substitution in PB2 Enhances the Pathogenicity of Wild-Bird-Origin H6N6 Subtype Avian Influenza Virus in Mice

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Miura H ◽  
◽  
Ozeki Y ◽  
Omatsu T ◽  
Katayama Y ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Whole Genome Sequence ◽  
Species Barrier ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Original Virus ◽  
Wild Waterfowl

Avian Influenza Viruses (AIVs) are harbored by wild waterfowl as a natural host, and there is a species barrier restricting virus transmission from birds to mammals, including humans. However, it has been reported that, through genetic mutations, AIVs occasionally infect mammals and acquire high pathogenicity. The Amino Acid (aa) substitution of glutamic acid to lysine at position 627 (E627K) in polymerase basic protein 2 (PB2) is one of the wellknown factors underlying mammalian adaptation. Although this substitution was previously observed in mammalian-adapted H5, H7, and H9 AIV subtypes, the impact of this mutation on the mammalian adaptation of other AIV subtypes is not fully verified. Here, we isolated the low pathogenic AIV subtype H6N6 from a wild bird fecal sample in Tokachi Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. We passaged this H6N6 subtype in BALB/c mice four times and acquired the mouse-adapted virus. Whole-genome sequence analysis showed that the adapted virus had only one aa substitution (E627K) in PB2. The adapted virus-inoculated mice tended to show increased weight loss and mortality compared with the original virus-inoculated mice. The viral titer in the lungs of the adapted virus-inoculated mice was significantly higher than that of the original virus-inoculated mice. Additionally, the virus isolated from the lung of the original virus-inoculated mice with serious symptoms harbored the E627K substitution. Our findings indicate the possibility that the PB2 E627K substitution in H6N6 subtype AIV rapidly appears in mammalian hosts and contributes to the enhanced pathogenicity of this virus.

scholarly journals Monitoring Emergent Avian Influenza Viruses Subtypes H5 and H7 in Wild Birds in Ukraine

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Borys Stegniy ◽  
Denys Muzyka ◽  
Mary Pantin-Jackwood ◽  
Oleksandr Rula ◽  
Anton Stegniy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Avian Influenza Viruses ◽  
Wild Waterfowl

The abstract is devoted to monitoring studies of circulation of the AIV subtypes H5 and H7 in wild waterfowl and shorebirds around the Azov-Black Sea in Ukraine

scholarly journals Complete Coding Sequences of One H9 and Three H7 Low-Pathogenic Influenza Viruses Circulating in Wild Birds in Belgium, 2009 to 2012

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Van Borm ◽  
Toon Rosseel ◽  
Sylvie Marché ◽  
Mieke Steensels ◽  
Didier Vangeluwe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Avian Influenza ◽  
Illumina Sequencing ◽  
Viral Genome ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
Influenza A Viruses ◽  
Bird Population ◽  
Coding Sequences ◽  
Wild Waterfowl

The complete coding sequences of four avian influenza A viruses (two H7N7, one H7N1, and one H9N2) circulating in wild waterfowl in Belgium from 2009 to 2012 were determined using Illumina sequencing. All viral genome segments represent viruses circulating in the Eurasian wild bird population.

Introduction

Eating Earth ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Kemmerer
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Animal Suffering ◽  
Animal Products ◽  
Free Range ◽  
Dietary Choices ◽  
Born Again

When i was in my twenties on a Watson Fellowship that took me to the Tibetan Plateau, I met an Irishman at a low-end restaurant. We had dinner together. Though each of us had met many other people in our travels, there was something magnetic about our connection—I refer to the negative ends of a magnet. We disagreed about pretty much everything. At the time, I would best have been described as a budding philosopher, ethicist, atheist, feminist, and animal liberationist; he was a scientist, mathematician, born-again Christian, and environmentalist. Ideologically we had almost nothing in common, but since we had both been traveling for months with little opportunity to speak English (and even less to engage in meaningful discussions) we spent our days together . . . and argued almost perpetually. Because we tended to meet at dinner, and because I was a vegetarian, our disagreements usually began over food, then spread to innumerable other areas of discord. Despite the discord, we continued our discussions long after we returned to our respective homes. Yet neither reason nor heartfelt pleas shifted the Irishman to a plant-based diet. He was sympathetic to human moral responsibilities for animal suffering (ever the Christian), but on learning of the cruelty of animal agriculture, he merely shifted to “happy meat” and the eggs of “free range” chickens. Though I feverishly pointed to the horrific transport and dependable adolescent slaughter of grass-fed and “free range” animals, and the absence of any nutritional need for animal products in our diet, my energy was wasted. Ultimately, it was the Irishman’s concern for the environment, combined with his predilection for numbers, that altered his dietary choices. Recently my friend composed an essay for an anthology I was putting together, about animal advocacy and environmentalism and the search for common ground. In the process, he applied his math and science skills to calculate the ratio of the mass of wild birds to the ratio of the mass of chickens in the U.K.—1:104. His horror was palpable despite his wry response: “For every ten grams of wild bird, somewhere out there (and close) lies a full kilo of chicken.”

scholarly journals Wild Bird Surveillance for Avian Paramyxoviruses in the Azov-Black Sea Region of Ukraine (2006 to 2011) Reveals Epidemiological Connections with Europe and Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 80 (17) ◽  
pp. 5427-5438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denys Muzyka ◽  
Mary Pantin-Jackwood ◽  
Borys Stegniy ◽  
Oleksandr Rula ◽  
Vitaliy Bolotin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Wild Bird ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Class 1 ◽  
Different Seasons ◽  
The Relationship

ABSTRACTDespite the existence of 10 avian paramyxovirus (APMV) serotypes, very little is known about the distribution, host species, and ecological factors affecting virus transmission. To better understand the relationship among these factors, we conducted APMV wild bird surveillance in regions of Ukraine suspected of being intercontinental (north to south and east to west) flyways. Surveillance for APMV was conducted in 6,735 wild birds representing 86 species and 8 different orders during 2006 to 2011 through different seasons. Twenty viruses were isolated and subsequently identified as APMV-1 (n= 9), APMV-4 (n= 4), APMV-6 (n= 3), and APMV-7 (n= 4). The highest isolation rate occurred during the autumn migration (0.61%), with viruses isolated from mallards, teals, dunlins, and a wigeon. The rate of isolation was lower during winter (December to March) (0.32%), with viruses isolated from ruddy shelducks, mallards, white-fronted geese, and a starling. During spring migration, nesting, and postnesting (April to August) no APMV strains were isolated out of 1,984 samples tested. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of four APMV-1 and two APMV-4 viruses showed that one APMV-1 virus belonging to class 1 was epidemiologically linked to viruses from China, three class II APMV-1 viruses were epidemiologically connected with viruses from Nigeria and Luxembourg, and one APMV-4 virus was related to goose viruses from Egypt. In summary, we have identified the wild bird species most likely to be infected with APMV, and our data support possible intercontinental transmission of APMVs by wild birds.

scholarly journals Molecular Epidemiology and Characterization of Campylobacter spp. Isolated from Wild Bird Populations in Northern England

2009 ◽  
Vol 75 (10) ◽  
pp. 3007-3015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura A. Hughes ◽  
Malcolm Bennett ◽  
Peter Coffey ◽  
John Elliott ◽  
Trevor R. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Epidemiology ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Domestic Animal ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Campylobacter Coli ◽  
Coastal Habitat ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Bird Populations

ABSTRACT Campylobacter infections have been reported at prevalences ranging from 2 to 50% in a range of wild bird species, although there have been few studies that have investigated the molecular epidemiology of Campylobacter spp. Consequently, whether wild birds are a source of infection in humans or domestic livestock or are mainly recipients of domestic animal strains and whether separate cycles of infection occur remain unknown. To address these questions, serial cross-sectional surveys of wild bird populations in northern England were carried out over a 2-year period. Fecal samples were collected from 2,084 wild bird individuals and screened for the presence of Campylobacter spp. A total of 56 isolates were recovered from 29 birds sampled at 15 of 167 diverse locales. Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter lari, and Campylobacter coli were detected by PCR, and the prevalences of different Campylobacter spp. in different avian families ranged from 0% to 33%. Characterization of 36 C. jejuni isolates by multilocus sequence typing revealed that wild birds carry both livestock-associated and unique strains of C. jejuni. However, the apparent absence of unique wild bird strains of C. jejuni in livestock suggests that the direction of infection is predominantly from livestock to wild birds. C. lari was detected mainly in wild birds sampled in an estuarine or coastal habitat. Fifteen C. lari isolates were analyzed by macrorestriction pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, which revealed genetically diverse populations of C. lari in Eurasian oystercatchers (Haematopus ostralegus) and clonal populations in magpies (Pica pica).

scholarly journals Live Wild Bird Trade and Sellers’ Biosecurity Risks in Kaduna State, Nigeria

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-23
Author(s):  
Assam Assam ◽  
Helen Abah ◽  
Paul A. Abdu ◽  
Augustine Ezealor
Keyword(s):  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Wild Bird ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Bird Species ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Wild Birds ◽  
Wire Mesh ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Biosecurity Practices

Aims: The first highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 outbreak in Africa occurred in Kaduna State, Nigeria and despite possible introduction of H5N1 virus into Nigeria through wild birds; few studies have been undertaken on the risk of live wild bird trade and sellers” biosecurity practices on introduction, spread and maintenance of diseases in the country. This study assessed wild bird trade and sellers” biosecurity risk towards disease surveillance and control in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Place and Duration of Study: Live wild bird markets in Kaduna State, Nigeria between March, and May 2012. Methodology: Live wildbird markets(LWBMs) biosecurity and sellers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices on HPAI was assessed using biosecurity checklist and structured questionnaire, respectively. Wild bird trade was studied through a market survey in LWBMs. Results: All sellers were male and their main source of income was the wild bird trade. Some sellers (22.7%) would report sick birds only when attempted treatment fails. Sellers kept poultry at home (78.9%) with 100% allowing poultry–wild birds contact. Over 31.6% sellers do not wash hands with soap after handling birds. About 86.4% sellers heard of AI with 84.2% hearing from radio. No sellers knew any HPAI clinical sign though 21.1% knew HPAI affects human beings and none believes HPAI affects human beings. Sellers would report HPAI outbreak to reduce losses (38.9%). None of the LWBMs was fenced with birds tied and allowed to move in 25% of LWBMs. Cages were wood/metal while fenced pens constructed from wood/wire mesh with un-cemented floor. No LWBM sourced birds from one reliable source neither were birds separated by species. In 50% of LWBMs, cages were stacked without paper or other materials lined within cages. No LWBM either stored feed in rodent proof containers or had a rodent control program. Other livestock were sold in 75% of LWBMs. Free flying birds interact with wild birds in 75% of LWBMs while free range poultry – wild bird interaction occurred in 25% of LWBMs. No seller wore protective clothing in any LWBM. All markets practice regular cleaning of cages and pens though none disinfects cages regularly. All LWBMs dispose dead birds properly by burning or burying though 25% dispose wild bird manure improperly. Over 75.9% of biosecurity features in LWBMs were risky with 76.2% being risky biosecurity practices and 80% (17/21) due to poor LWBM infrastructures. Food (31.8%), traditional medicine (45.5%) and pets (77.3%) were reported wild birds uses. There was high demand for birds of prey during election years. White stork (11.42%) and geese (9.94%) were the main birds on sale. Threatened and rear wild bird species were being traded in the LWBMs. Over 45% of birds were sourced from 9 foreign countries with majority coming from Chad. Bird prices range was ₦300 ($1.9) to ₦125,000 ($781). Mammals and reptiles were also sold in LWBMs with prices from ₦500 ($3.1) to ₦ 1.2million ($7500). Wild birds on sale in the four LWBMs were valued at ₦6,575,300 ($41,100) comprising of 71.4% of total value of animals (₦9,207,300) on sale. Conclusion: Sellers’ biosecurity practices was poor with high biosecurity risk due to low-risk perception. Biosecurity in LWBMs in Kaduna State was poor with high risk to introduction, spread and maintenance of HPAI. Wild bird trade in Kaduna State is linked to the global trade and could be a source for disease introduction into Nigeria. There is need for sellers to be trained on HPAI and other emerging infectious diseases and routine surveillance of EIDs in LWBMs. The wild bird trade should be legalized and regulated.

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