Cargando…

The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds

BACKGROUND: The emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America has been associated with high mortality in the native avifauna and has raised concerns about the long-term impact of WNV on bird populations. Here, we present results from a longitudinal analysis of annual counts of six bird species...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Foppa, Ivo M, Beard, Raphaelle H, Mendenhall, Ian H
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21831324
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-7-43
_version_ 1782210924754501632
author Foppa, Ivo M
Beard, Raphaelle H
Mendenhall, Ian H
author_facet Foppa, Ivo M
Beard, Raphaelle H
Mendenhall, Ian H
author_sort Foppa, Ivo M
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America has been associated with high mortality in the native avifauna and has raised concerns about the long-term impact of WNV on bird populations. Here, we present results from a longitudinal analysis of annual counts of six bird species, using North American Breeding Bird Survey data from ten states (1994 to 2010). We fit overdispersed Poisson models to annual counts. Counts from successive years were linked by an autoregressive process that depended on WNV transmission intensity (annual West Nile neuroinvasive disease reports) and was adjusted by El Niño Southern Oscillation events. These models were fit using a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. RESULTS: Model fit was mostly excellent, especially for American Crows, for which our models explained between 26% and 81% of the observed variance. The impact of WNV on bird populations was quantitatively evaluated by contrasting hypothetical count trajectories (omission of WNV) with observed counts. Populations of American crows were most consistently affected with a substantial cumulative impact in six of ten states. The largest negative impact, almost 60%, was found in Illinois. A regionally substantial decline was also seen for American Robins and House Sparrows, while the other species appeared unaffected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm findings from previous studies that single out American Crows as the species most vulnerable to WNV infection. We discuss strengths and limitations of this and other methods for quantifying the impact of WNV on bird populations.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-3163188
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2011
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-31631882011-08-29 The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds Foppa, Ivo M Beard, Raphaelle H Mendenhall, Ian H BMC Vet Res Research Article BACKGROUND: The emergence of West Nile virus (WNV) in North America has been associated with high mortality in the native avifauna and has raised concerns about the long-term impact of WNV on bird populations. Here, we present results from a longitudinal analysis of annual counts of six bird species, using North American Breeding Bird Survey data from ten states (1994 to 2010). We fit overdispersed Poisson models to annual counts. Counts from successive years were linked by an autoregressive process that depended on WNV transmission intensity (annual West Nile neuroinvasive disease reports) and was adjusted by El Niño Southern Oscillation events. These models were fit using a Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm. RESULTS: Model fit was mostly excellent, especially for American Crows, for which our models explained between 26% and 81% of the observed variance. The impact of WNV on bird populations was quantitatively evaluated by contrasting hypothetical count trajectories (omission of WNV) with observed counts. Populations of American crows were most consistently affected with a substantial cumulative impact in six of ten states. The largest negative impact, almost 60%, was found in Illinois. A regionally substantial decline was also seen for American Robins and House Sparrows, while the other species appeared unaffected. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirm findings from previous studies that single out American Crows as the species most vulnerable to WNV infection. We discuss strengths and limitations of this and other methods for quantifying the impact of WNV on bird populations. BioMed Central 2011-08-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3163188/ /pubmed/21831324 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-7-43 Text en Copyright ©2011 Foppa et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Foppa, Ivo M
Beard, Raphaelle H
Mendenhall, Ian H
The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title_full The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title_fullStr The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title_full_unstemmed The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title_short The impact of West Nile virus on the abundance of selected North American birds
title_sort impact of west nile virus on the abundance of selected north american birds
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163188/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21831324
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-7-43
work_keys_str_mv AT foppaivom theimpactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds
AT beardraphaelleh theimpactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds
AT mendenhallianh theimpactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds
AT foppaivom impactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds
AT beardraphaelleh impactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds
AT mendenhallianh impactofwestnilevirusontheabundanceofselectednorthamericanbirds