Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Experimental Susceptibility of Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) For West Nile Virus
West Nile Virus (WNV) is a disease spread through mosquitos and orally. It has affected
the bird populations (including several species of ducks) across the continental United States
and southern Canada. WNV is a problem as it can cause illness if a person become infected with
the disease. Birds are amplifier hosts which means they can produce enough of the virus to
infect other mosquitos, which can then infect humans or other mammals. Studies have shown
that Mallards and Aigamo ducks have been reported to be susceptible to WNV. One study
results showed a prevalence of WNV antibody in Mallards and Northern Pintails that was more
than twice the prevalence in wood ducks. This study determined wood ducks susceptibility and
Four-week old ducklings were obtained and separated into two groups: 5 non-WNV
inoculated controls in separate housing and 3 contact controls housed with 14 WNV-challenged
birds. At 6-weeks, each duckling was given a physical, and blood samples were taken to create a
baseline WNV serology. The WNV-challenged were split into two additional subgroups and
sampled on alternate days. After 14 days of sampling, the ducks were euthanized and samples
from the skin, trachea, lung, heart, crop, ventriculus, intestine, pancreas, liver, spleen, kidney,
bone marrow, sciatic nerve, pectoral muscle, optic tectum, cerebrum, cerebellum and brain
stem were taken. These samples were then screened for WNV through a culturing process and
detected between day 1 and day 4 pi (post-inoculation) and detected in cloacal swabs on days 3
and 4 pi. Generally, if a bird was shedding WNV orally, it was also shedding virus from the
cloaca. No gross lesions were detected, but microscopic lesions were found in WNV challenged
birds, frequently in the heart (77%), cerebellum (69%), brain stem (46%), cerebrum (31%), optic
tectum (31%), and skin (31%). The peak in viremia titers (where transmission to mosquitoes is
highest) was detected on day 2 pi. There was no correlation between viremia and microscopic
lesions.
WNV transmission among wood ducks is probably minimal, they do not produce enough
viremia to infect many mosquitoes as compared to other animals (chickens, aigamo ducks,
mallards) researched infected with WNV. Although there was WNV shedding orally and from
the cloaca (which may spread the disease to other waterbirds), the risk is unknown, but
probably minimal. The tissues from the infected wood ducks revealed lesions, however, they
were much less severe than the lesions reported in the Rouen ducks, and occurred less
frequently than those observed in the Lesser Scaup. Wood ducks fall into the susceptibility class
in which the species only suffers minor clinical signs of WNV and mounts an early and robust
immune response.