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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>Robert J. Dusek</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Koray Ergunay</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Yvonne-Marie Linton</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Sergei V. Drovetski</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Brian P. Bourke</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>2024</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;div class="JournalAbstract"&gt;&lt;p&gt;The threat posed by emerging infectious diseases is a major concern for global public health, animal health and food security, and the role of birds in transmission is increasingly under scrutiny. Each year, millions of mass-reared game-farm birds are released into the wild, presenting a unique and a poorly understood risk to wild and susceptible bird populations, and to human health. In particular, the shedding of enteric pathogens through excrement into bodies of water at shared migratory stop-over sites, and breeding and wintering grounds, could facilitate multi-species long-distance pathogen dispersal and infection of high numbers of naive endemic birds annually. The Mallard (&lt;i&gt;Anas platyrhynchos&lt;/i&gt;) is the most abundant of all duck species, migratory across much of its range, and an important game species for pen-rearing and release. Major recent population declines along the US Atlantic coast has been attributed to game-farm and wild mallard interbreeding and the introduction maladaptive traits into wild populations. However, pathogen transmission and zoonosis among game-farms Mallard may also impact these populations, as well as wildlife and human health. Here, we screened 16 game-farm Mallard from Wisconsin, United States, for enteric viral pathogens using metatranscriptomic data. Four families of viral pathogens were identified –&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Picobirnaviridae&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;(Genogroup I),&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Caliciviridae&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;(Duck&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Nacovirus&lt;/i&gt;),&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Picornaviridae&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;(Duck&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Aalivirus&lt;/i&gt;) and&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Sedoreoviridae&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;(Duck&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Rotavirus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;G). To our knowledge, this is the first report of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Aalivirus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in the Americas, and the first report of&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Calicivirus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;outside domestic chicken and turkey flocks in the United States. Our findings highlight the risk of viral pathogen spillover from peri-domestically reared game birds to naive wild bird populations.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.3389/fvets.2024.1396552</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Frontiers Media</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Viral pathogen detection in U.S. game-farm mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) flags spillover risk to wild birds</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>