Avian influenza H5N1 in viverrids: implications for wildlife health and conservation
Roberton SI., Bell DJ., Smith GJD., Nicholls JM., Chan KH., Nguyen DT., Tran PQ., Streicher U., Poon LLM., Chen H., Horby P., Guardo M., Guan Y., Peiris JSM.
The Asian countries chronically infected with avian influenza A H5N1 are ‘global hotspots’ for biodiversity conservation in terms of species diversity, endemism and levels of threat. Since 2003, avian influenza A H5N1 viruses have naturally infected and killed a range of wild bird species, four felid species and a mustelid. Here, we report fatal disseminated H5N1 infection in a globally threatened viverrid, the Owston's civet, in Vietnam, highlighting the risk that avian influenza H5N1 poses to mammalian and avian biodiversity across its expanding geographic range.