Epidemiological risk factors for animal influenza A viruses overcoming species barriers

Published

2017

Data Available

29 Jan 2018

Last Updated

27 Oct 2020

Status

Open Access

Language

Journal Article

https://hdl.handle.net/10568/90619

Drivers and risk factors for Influenza A virus transmission across species barriers are poorly understood, despite the ever present threat to human and animal health potentially on a pandemic scale. Here we review the published evidence for epidemiological risk factors associated with influenza viruses transmitting between animal species and from animals to humans. A total of 39 papers were found with evidence of epidemiological risk factors for influenza virus transmission from animals to humans; 18 of which had some statistical measure associated with the transmission of a virus. Circumstantial or observational evidence of risk factors for transmission between animal species was found in 21 papers, including proximity to infected animals, ingestion of infected material and potential association with a species known to carry influenza virus. Only three publications were found which presented a statistical measure of an epidemiological risk factor for the transmission of influenza between animal species. This review has identified a significant gap in knowledge regarding epidemiological risk factors for the transmission of influenza viruses between animal species.

Citation

Harris, K.A., Freidl, G.S., Munoz, O.S., von Dobschuetz, S., De Nardi, M., Wieland, B., Koopmans, M.P.G., Stärk, K.D.C., van Reeth, K., Dauphin, G., Meijer, A., de Bruin, E., Capua, I., Hill, A.A., Kosmider, R., Banks, J., Stevens, K., van der Werf, S., Enouf, V., van der Meulen, K., Brown, I.H., Alexander, D.J. and Breed, A.C. 2017. Epidemiological risk factors for animal influenza A viruses overcoming species barriers. EcoHealth 14(2):342–360.