Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
© The Author(s), 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Emerging Microbes and Infections 5 (2016): e81, doi:10.1038/emi.2016.77.
Description:
Influenza A virus (IAV) has been associated with multiple unusual mortality events (UMEs) in North Atlantic pinnipeds, frequently attributed to spillover of virus from wild-bird reservoirs. To determine if endemic infection persists outside of UMEs, we undertook a multiyear investigation of IAV in healthy, live-captured Northwest Atlantic gray seals (Halichoerus grypus). From 2013 to 2015, we sampled 345 pups and 57 adults from Cape Cod, MA, USA and Nova Scotia, Canada consistently detecting IAV infection across all groups. There was an overall viral prevalence of 9.0% (95% confidence interval (CI): 6.4%–12.5%) in weaned pups and 5.3% (CI: 1.2%–14.6%) in adults, with seroprevalences of 19.3% (CI: 15.0%–24.5%) and 50% (CI: 33.7%–66.4%), respectively. Positive sera showed a broad reactivity to diverse influenza subtypes. IAV status did not correlate with measures of animal health nor impact animal movement or foraging. This study demonstrated that Northwest Atlantic gray seals are both permissive to and tolerant of diverse IAV, possibly representing an endemically infected wild reservoir population.
Description:
This work was supported in part by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), the Centers of Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) HHSN272201400008C, MIT Sea Grant Project 2013-DOH-45-LEV, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), NMFS #17670-01, NMFS #10080-95 and FWS #53514-13003.
Keywords:
Gray seal
;
Halichoerus grypus
;
Influenza
;
Pinniped
;
Reservoir
;
Telemetry
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Permalink
