2025: Avian Influenza at the Wild-Domestic Interface
Since 2022, highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) has rapidly spread across the U.S., severely impacting wildlife and livestock, and posing growing risks to food systems, human health, and wildlife conservation. Because wildlife plays a key role in the spread of the virus and is heavily impacted by the virus, it is critical to include wildlife in HPAI surveillance. In collaboration with the USDA and state agencies, this project aims to identify HPAI transmission chains between wildlife and livestock and develop improved surveillance and biosecurity guidelines and policies. This will allow us to better characterize species-specific roles in transmission and identify opportunities for targeted interventions.
Investigators: Amandine Gamble, Ana Bento, Kevin Cummings, Charley Willison, Jarra Jagne, Jennifer Bloodgood (all College of Veterinary Medicine/Public and Ecosystem Health), and Kheila Dhondt (College of Veterinary Medicine/Microbiology and Immunology)