Prevalence and Genetic Diversity of Avipoxvirus in House Sparrows in Spain

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 11; no. 12; p. e0168690
• Main Authors: Ruiz-Martínez, Jorge, Ferraguti, Martina, Figuerola, Jordi, Martínez-de la Puente, Josué, Williams, Richard Alexander John, Herrera-Dueñas, Amparo, Aguirre, José Ignacio, Soriguer, Ramón, Escudero, Clara, Moens, Michaël André Jean, Pérez-Tris, Javier, Benítez, Laura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 22-12-2016; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adults; Agrivoltaics; Analysis; Animals; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Avipoxvirus - genetics; Biodiversity; Biology and Life Sciences; Bird Diseases - epidemiology; Bird Diseases - genetics; Bird Diseases - pathology; Birds; Culicidae; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA sequencing; Epidemiology; Fowlpox; Gene sequencing; Genetic diversity; Genetic Variation - genetics; House sparrow; Infections; Islands; Lesions; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mitochondrial DNA; Morbidity; Nucleotide sequence; Organic farming; Passer domesticus; Pathogens; People and Places; Phylogenetics; Phylogeny; Poultry; Poxviridae; Poxviridae Infections - epidemiology; Poxviridae Infections - genetics; Poxviridae Infections - veterinary; Poxviruses; Prevalence; Research and analysis methods; Spain - epidemiology; Sparrows - genetics; Sparrows - virology; Species; Species diversity; Taxonomy; Urban areas; Viral infections; Viral Proteins - genetics; Viruses; Zoonotic Ecology; Zoonotisk ekologi; Spain; Hawaii
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0168690

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.