Serological Monitoring of Avian Influenza in Migratory Birds of Iran

Although migratory waterfowl is well known to be a major reservoir foravian influenza virus (alv), there are only few recently published reportsabout the seroprevalence of aiv in this group of birds. to investigate theaiv antibody status in migratory waterfowl ofiran, we collected 217 serumsamples from 25 different species of waterfowl during 2003 and 2004. theseserum samples were tested by a competitive elisa. 77 samples from 14different species were positive (35.5%). interestingly, the seroprevajence ofantibodies against type a influenza viruses was significantly higher inanseriformes (64%) than in non-anseriformes (12%) and in total birds(35.5%). our results show furthermore that mallards which winter in iran inlarge numbers and show 87.5% positive reactions might play an importantrole in the epidemiology of influenza virus in this region.