Avian Research at EES-2:

Avian Influenza, Emerging diseases, Contaminants, and Environmental Stress

LA-UR-06-0893
February 2006
Jeanne Fair, EES-2

From global climate change, increasing climate severity, large-scale ecosystem perturbations, and newly emerging diseases, the world is now rapidly changing at a rate that requires rapid and accurate scientific documentation. In some cases, the effects of these pressures on specific ecosystems and life forms are obvious and well documented. In other cases, the effects are subtle, unexpected, and undocumented and may be coupled to other processes in a synergistic manner. Either way, implementing corrective actions generally requires that environmental issues be thoroughly scientifically documented.

Birds, because of their high body temperature, rapid metabolism, and position high on most food webs, are excellent indicators of the effects of environmental change. Documentation of the effects of chlorinated hydrocarbon pollution on seabirds and raptors and of the effects of heavy metal accumulation on waterfowl has provided well-known examples of the value of birds as environmental indicators. Compared to other taxa, birds are relatively easily observed and counted, and they are abundant and diverse in virtually all ecosystems. Moreover, the discrete seasonality of birds' reproductive efforts makes it relatively easy to monitor their productivity, while their intermediate longevity facilitates determination of their survivorship and population age structure.

For over 20 years EES division has been supplying fundamental science of various aspects of birds from contaminant uptake in birds at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to complex dynamic behavior models in goshawks. In the last decade, avian science researchers at LANL have continued the monitoring of birds for contaminants and investigated the impacts of stress on bird populations, including drought and fire. These efforts have provided significant advances in environmental monitoring using birds. 

Zoonotic diseases, or diseases that transfer from animals to humans, is area of concern and interest. Some stresses on birds also affect human health and these include the numerous newly emerging diseases like avian flu where birds are both victims and vectors. Recent work at LANL includes multi-disciplinary and work to investigate West Nile Virus and to develop the tools necessary to better understand avian influenza. The West Nile virus (WNV) serves as a prime example of how a newly emerged zoonotic disease rapidly spreads across the US. The WNV was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has since rapidly spread across North America into all 48 continental states, seven Canadian provinces, and throughout Mexico. In a collaborative effort between EES, Bioscience, and ENV Divisions, new immunologic tools to determine species susceptibility to WNV are being developed.

Avian Influenza

 “Avian flu poses the single biggest threat to the world right now and health officials may not yet have all the tools they need to fight it” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, February 22nd, 2005.

The World Health Organization, government leaders, and influenza experts worldwide are concerned that the recent appearance and widespread distribution of an avian influenza virus, Influenza A/H5N1, has the potential to ignite the next pandemic. Avian influenza virus (AIV) is a highly pathogenic virus that is rapidly transmissible among land-based poultry and has been found to directly infect humans. The natural host reservoir for AIV and other Type A influenza viruses is waterfowl (e.g., ducks and geese). The spread of AIV among wild and agricultural birds already meets criteria of a pandemic within avian populations. There is serious concern that additional genetic re-assortment of the virus as it moves through avian and human populations will eventually enable human-to-human transmission, thus setting off a human pandemic.  The rapid spread of AIV among countries in Southeast Asia, and now Russia, is directly attributable to global movement of migratory waterfowl. Because of the intersection of eastern and western flyways in the Arctic it is estimated that AIV will hit the continental US through Alaska within the next two years. 

There are numerous nonpathogenic and unrelated influenza strains that currently reside in the avian and water reservoirs in North America that could serve as surrogates for H5N1. An additional factor that contributes to the spread of AIV is the evidence that AIV is highly persistent and stable in a water environment. It is clear that our understanding of this virus in many ways is outpaced by the speed with which AIV is spreading.

Banding, measuring bird Photo by Stephen Fettig	Waterfowl in New Mexico Photo by Stephen Fettig

Rio Grande Corridor Life History and Importance

Historically, the Rio Grande provided a natural route for the north-bound Spanish colonizers. In addition to attracting human settlers, the Rio Grande is the only major through–flowing waterway in the Chihuahuan Desert and provided unparalleled riparian and aquatic habitats for the flora and fauna of the region. The Rio Grande corridor riparian habitat has concentrated human activity and ecological diversity in the otherwise arid region. Today, extensive networks of diversions and dams control flows on the Rio Grande. Persistent drought conditions through the corridor over the six years have greatly impacted the Rio Grande. The ecological diversity of the Rio Grande riparian corridor is related to variable flood regimes, altitudinal climate shifts, geographically unique channel processes, and upland influences on the fluvial corridor. Several areas on the Rio Grande, such as the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, are critical wintering areas for hundreds of thousands of waterfowl. The resulting dynamic environment also supports a variety of life-history strategies, biogeochemical cycles and rates, for organisms adapted to disturbance regimes over broad spatial and temporal scales. Indeed, our working knowledge suggests that the Rio Grande River will act as a corridor and haven for the newly emerging pathogens, avian influenza from the wintering grounds of waterfowl, and dengue fever following the river northward from Mexico.

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