RT Journal Article
T1 Prevalence and genetic diversity of avipoxvirus in house sparrows in Spain
A1 Ruiz Martínez, Jorge
A1 Ferraguti, Martina
A1 Figuerola, Jordi
A1 Martínez de la Puente, Josué
A1 Williams, Richard Alexander John
A1 Herrera Dueñas, Amparo
A1 Aguirre de Miguel, José Ignacio
A1 Soriguer, Ramón
A1 Escudero, Clara
A1 Moens, Michaël André Jean
A1 Pérez Tris, Javier
A1 Benítez Rico, Laura
AB Avipoxvirus (APV) is a fairly common virus affecting birds that causes morbidity and mortality in wild and captive birds. We studied the prevalence of pox-like lesions and genetic diversity of APV in house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in natural, agricultural and urban areas in southern Spain in 2013 and 2014 and in central Spain for 8 months (2012–2013). Overall, 3.2% of 2,341 house sparrows visually examined in southern Spain had cutaneous lesions consistent with avian pox. A similar prevalence (3%) was found in 338 birds from central Spain. Prevalence was higher in hatch-year birds than in adults. We did not detect any clear spatial or temporal patterns of APV distribution. Molecular analyses of poxvirus-like lesions revealed that 63% of the samples were positive. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses of 29 DNA sequences from the fpv167 gene, detected two strains belonging to the canarypox clade (subclades B1 and B2) previously found in Spain. One of them appears predominant in Iberia and North Africa and shares 70% similarity to fowlpox and canarypox virus. This APV strain has been identified in a limited number of species in the Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and Hungary. The second one has a global distribution and has been found in numerous wild bird species around the world. To our knowledge, this represents the largest study of avian poxvirus disease in the broadly distributed house sparrow and strongly supports the findings that Avipox prevalence in this species in South and central Spain is moderate and the genetic diversity low.
SN 1932-6203
YR 2016
FD 2016-12-22
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/17630
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/17630
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN)
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
NO Agencia de Innovación y Desarrollo de Andalucía (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 6 may 2024