Title: The State of the (Avian Influenza) Union
Abstract: HPAI H5N1 in the U.S. – A tale of two viruses – Since the introduction of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 into North America in 2022, the virus has spread and changed in an unprecedented fashion. This talk will cover the virus’s introduction, spread and changes over time with a focus on the recent double crossover into dairy cattle and its emerging threats to public health.
Bio: Hon S. Ip. B. S. (University of Toronto, Microbiology and Parasitology), M. S. (University of Toronto, Zoology), Ph.D. (Rockefeller University, Molecular Biology). Dr. Ip is a federal research scientist and directs the Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Survey – National Wildlife Health Center. Dr. Ip’s laboratory works on emerging viral diseases of wildlife. Dr. Ip conducted the largest ever surveillance program on wild birds for the detection of avian influenza viruses for the Department of the Interior. It was his laboratory that first detected the introduction of highly pathogenic avian influenza into the US in 2014 and continues to provide early detection information following the 2022 incursion. His laboratory has recently focused on coronaviruses of wildlife including both surveillance and experimental infection programs for SARS-CoV-2. His laboratory has identified a diverse array of other coronaviruses in mink farms in the US that might pose future zoonotic threats. In addition to on-going collaborations with the CDC and USDA, a major focus of the laboratory is to seek a better understanding of the relationships between viral genetics and their spatiotemporal distribution in wildlife, including its application to threat detection for wildlife/agriculture/human health. He and his colleagues has published over a hundred papers on wildlife viral diseases.
