title: Avian influenza H5N1 viral and bird migration networks in Asia.
abstract: The spatial spread of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 and its long-term persistence in Asia have resulted in avian influenza panzootics and enormous economic losses in the poultry sector. However, an understanding of the regional long-distance transmission and seasonal patterns of the virus is still lacking. In this study, we present a phylogeographic approach to reconstruct the viral migration network. We show that within each wild fowl migratory flyway, the timing of H5N1 outbreaks and viral migrations are closely associated, but little viral transmission was observed between the flyways. The bird migration network is shown to better reflect the observed viral gene sequence data than other networks and contributes to seasonal H5N1 epidemics in local regions and its large-scale transmission along flyways. These findings have potentially far-reaching consequences, improving our understanding of how bird migration drives the periodic reemergence of H5N1 in Asia.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Huaiyu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Center for Earth System Science, and School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Sen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544;
authors.forename: Thomas P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Van Boeckel
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Yujun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Scott H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.forename: John Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Takekawa
authors.forename: Diann J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Prosser
authors.forename: Xiangming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Yarong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Ecologie et Evolution, UMR 7625, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Ecole Normale Supérieure, 75230 Paris Cedex 05, France; Unité de Modélisation Mathématique et Informatique des Systémes Complexes, Unité Mixte Internationale 209, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement et Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 93142 Bondy Cedex, France;
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cazelles
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Shanqian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, People's Republic of China;
authors.forename: Ruifu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892; and bingxu@tsinghua.edu.cn grenfell@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Bryan T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Grenfell
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, People's Republic of China; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Center for Earth System Science, and School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China; Department of Geography, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 bingxu@tsinghua.edu.cn grenfell@princeton.edu.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D001208:Asia / Q000453:epidemiology; D001717:Birds / Q000235:genetics / Q000821:virology*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D051456:Gene Flow; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D005843:Geography; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005585:Influenza in Birds / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000635:transmission / Q000821:virology*; D010802:Phylogeny; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: HPAI H5N1; bird migration; network; satellite tracking; viral migration