Risky business in Georgia's wild birds: contact rates between wild birds and backyard chickens is influenced by supplemental feed.

ABSTRACT: Backyard chickens are increasingly popular, and their husbandry varies widely. How backyard chickens are housed may influence the accessibility of chicken feed and water to wild birds, and thus, the contact rates between both groups. Increased contacts have implications for pathogen transmission; for instance, Newcastle disease virus or avian influenza virus may be transmitted to and from backyard chickens from contaminated water or feed. Given this potentially increased pathogen risk to wild birds and backyard chickens, we examined which wild bird species are likely to encounter backyard chickens and their resources. We performed a supplemental feeding experiment followed by observations at three sites associated with backyard chickens in North Georgia, USA. At each site, we identified th

SUBMITTER: Ayala AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9128352 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature