The recent introductions of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus in wild birds and its subsequent spread throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe has put a focus on the role of wild birds in the geographical spread of HPAI H5N1.

Large-scale surveillance programs are ongoing to determine a potential role of wild birds in H5N1 virus spread and to serve as sentinel system for introductions into new geographical regions. Importantly, this increased wild bird surveillance also yields new data on low pathogenic avian influenza A (LPAI) viruses. Although various new host species for LPAI viruses continue to be identified, our understanding of the ecology of LPAI viruses has remained relatively unchanged.

Migratory ducks are generally regarded as the main reservoir for most LPAI viruses, and are thus most frequently targeted in surveillance studies. Other reservoir species such as resident birds and migratory geese, swans, waders and gulls are studied less frequently. New data that shed new light on the evolution, epidemiology and ecology of LPAI in several reservoir species will be discussed

Vincent Jacobus Munster is a postdoctoral research fellow at the NIH/NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Munster’s research interest is the ecology, evolution and pathogenesis of emerging virus infections. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Munster work on avian influenza viruses is part of the NIH/NIAID Center of Excellence in Influenza Research and Pathogenesis. His studies involved the ecology, pathogenesis and transmission of influenza A viruses.