Waterfowl recently infected with low pathogenic avian influenza exhibit reduced local movement and delayed migration

Understanding relationships between infection and wildlife movement patterns is important for predicting pathogen spread, especially multispecies pathogens those that can spread to humans domestic animals, such as avian influenza viruses (AIVs). Although with low pathogenic AIVs generally considered asymptomatic in wild birds, prior work has shown influenza-infected birds occasionally delay migration and/or reduce local movements relative their uninfected counterparts. However, most observational research date focused on a few species northern Europe; given are widespread globally outbreaks of highly strains increasingly common, it explore influenza–movement across more regions. Here, we used telemetry data investigate behavior 165 individuals from four North American waterfowl overwinter California, USA. We studied both large-scale migratory overwintering found varied among species. Northern pintails (Anas acuta) antibodies influenza, indicating infection, made stopovers averaged 12 days longer than no antibodies. In contrast, greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) 15 shorter Canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) were actively infected upon capture the winter delayed spring by an average 28 at time capture. At scale, canvasbacks areas 7.6 4.9 times smaller ducks, respectively, during period presumed active infection. evidence influence mallards platyrhynchos). These results suggest illustrate bird context- species-dependent. More generally, understanding multihost requires studying multiple taxa space time.