Susceptibility of Mammals to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza: A Qualitative Risk Assessment From the Belgian Perspective.

Aims: The world experienced a huge number of outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in birds, which could represent one of the largest registered epidemics of infectious disease in food-producing animals. Therefore, mammals, including humans, are continuously exposed to HPAI viruses leading to sporadic and sometimes unusual mammal infections. The aim of this paper is to assess the risk of crossing the avian/mammalian species barrier by the currently circulating HPAI viruses, focusing on the epidemiological situation of Belgium, a representative country for Western Europe.

Persecution of Birds of Prey in Flanders: A Retrospective Study 2011-19.

For decades birds of prey have been under the protection of European law, but deliberate or unintentional killing is still a large-scale problem in Europe. In an effort to monitor illegal practices, the Flemish government established several bird of prey hotlines in 2006. Since then, every suspicious death of a bird of prey has been investigated.

Mitigating the impact of microbial pressure on great (Parus major) and blue (Cyanistes caeruleus) tit hatching success through maternal immune investment.

The hatching success of a bird's egg is one of the key determinants of avian reproductive success, which may be compromised by microbial infections causing embryonic death. During incubation, outer eggshell bacterial communities pose a constant threat of pathogen translocation and embryo infection. One of the parental strategies to mitigate this threat is the incorporation of maternal immune factors into the egg albumen and yolk.

Usutu Virus Epizootic and Plasmodium Coinfection in Eurasian Blackbirds ( Turdus merula) in Flanders, Belgium.

At the end of the summer of 2016, unusually high levels of mortality were detected in Passeriformes and Strigiformes in Flanders, Belgium, mainly in Eurasian Blackbirds ( Turdus merula). A passive surveillance program demonstrated a widespread Usutu virus outbreak and revealed a coinfection with Plasmodium in 99% of the dead passerine birds that were necropsied.

Effects of urbanization on host-pathogen interactions, using Yersinia in house sparrows as a model.

Urbanization strongly affects biodiversity, altering natural communities and often leading to a reduced species richness. Yet, despite its increasingly recognized importance, how urbanization impacts on the health of individual animals, wildlife populations and on disease ecology remains poorly understood. To test whether, and how, urbanization-driven ecosystem alterations influence pathogen dynamics and avian health, we use house sparrows (Passer domesticus) and Yersinia spp.