Occurrence of Avian Reovirus and Picobirnavirus in Wild Birds in an Environmental Protection Area in the Amazon Biome, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

Wild birds have great prominence on transmission of diseases to humans, mainly due to their ease of access to human population, raising concerns about the potential impact of that proximity in context of the One Health. Studies referring to circulation of avian reovirus (ARV) and picobirnavirus (PBV) in wild birds are limited, in addition to reinforcing the development of researches that describe the prevalence, characterize the variants and evaluate the potential impact of these infections on the wild ecosystem and public health. The present study reports the occurrence of ARV and PBV in wild birds collected from an environmental protection area in the Amazon biome. RT-PCR analysis showed ARV infection prevalence in 0.6% (1/155) and PBV infection in 1.29% (2/155) on the samples. ARV strain isolated in this study demonstrated more phylogenetically related to other ARVs previously circulating in poultry in the same region. The two PBV strains obtained belong to genogroup I, and showed phylogenetically related to other PBV isolated from different animal species in different geographic regions. This study is a pioneer in the detection of ARV in wild birds in Brazil and presents a report of the first occurrence of PBV in wild birds of Guira guira specie. Additional studies in wild birds are required to increase the epidemiology, origin, evolution and emergence of new viruses that may provoke problems in the context of One Health.