Speakers - 2025

Fang Yuan

  • Designation: National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research)
  • Country: China
  • Title: Cross Species Transmission of Avian Coronaviruses: Unveiling Spillover Dynamics from Migratory Birds to Poultry at the Wildlife Domestic Interface

Biography

Dr. Fang Yuan is an associate researcher at the National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, China CDC; an adjunct faculty member at the School of Global Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; and a professional member of the Tropical Diseases Committee of the Chinese Endemic Disease Association. She is mainly engaged in reverse etiology of vector-borne diseases, genomic tracing, transmission risk assessment, and control strategy research. She is also interested in the transmission mechanism of flavivirus and virus cross-species transmission. As the first author, she has published more than 30 SCI papers on Advances in Parasitology, Infectious Diseases of Poverty, and Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

Abstract

Emerging zoonotic diseases, especially coronaviruses (CoVs), pose significant public health risks, with migratory birds as key reservoirs. This study investigates CoV spillover at the wildlife-domestic interface, focusing on the seasonal and annual fluctuations of avian CoVs in migratory birds at Chongming, China. Samples collected from migratory birds during 2023-2024 showed seasonal variation in CoV prevalence, with Charadriiformes having a 22.29% positivity rate in autumn 2023 and Anseriformes showing 85.71% in winter 2023, decreasing to 10.53% in 2024. Phylogenetic analysis identified Gamma-CoVs as DuCoV_NL3, with high genetic similarity to poultry strains, indicating cross-species transmission. Environmental contamination in wetland habitats facilitated CoV transmission, with migratory birds acting as dispersers. Delta-CoV was detected less frequently but showed diversity in migratory birds and environmental samples. This study provides the first empirical evidence of pathogen spillover from migratory birds to poultry, with environmental contamination playing a key role. The findings emphasize the importance of enhanced surveillance of wildlife-poultry interactions and the need for a One Health approach to prevent zoonotic spillover and mitigate risks.

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