Publications by authors named "K Bertran"

High pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs) have caused major epizootics in recent years, with devastating consequences for poultry and wildlife worldwide. Domestic and wild ducks can be highly susceptible to HPAIVs, and infection leads to efficient viral replication and massive shedding (i.e.

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Article Synopsis
  • Immature feathers act as sites for high pathogenicity avian influenza virus (HPAIV) replication in poultry, but their exact role in viral transmission remains unclear.
  • The study focused on the feather epithelium's contribution to spreading clade 2.3.4.4b H5 HPAIVs in domestic ducks, revealing significant effects of infection, including tissue damage and viral shedding.
  • The findings suggest that feather epithelium is critical for viral replication and may serve as a source of infectious materials in the environment, thereby enhancing the spread of the virus among poultry flocks.
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Vaccines are an essential tool for the control of viral infections in domestic animals. We generated recombinant vector herpesvirus of turkeys (vHVT) vaccines expressing computationally optimized broadly reactive antigen (COBRA) H5 of avian influenza virus (AIV) alone (vHVT-AI) or in combination with virus protein 2 (VP2) of infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) (vHVT-IBD-AI) or fusion (F) protein of Newcastle disease virus (NDV) (vHVT-ND-AI). In vaccinated chickens, all three vHVT vaccines provided 90-100% clinical protection against three divergent clades of high pathogenicity avian influenza viruses (HPAIVs), and significantly decreased number of birds and oral viral shedding titers at 2 days post-challenge compared to shams.

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Avian influenza viruses (AIVs) can affect wildlife, poultry, and humans, so a One Health perspective is needed to optimize mitigation strategies. Migratory waterfowl globally spread AIVs over long distances. Therefore, the study of AIV persistence in waterfowl staging and breeding areas is key to understanding their transmission dynamics and optimizing management strategies.

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