Biomedical subjects

Michelle Wille

Publications and source records attributed to Michelle Wille.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2026

Reassortment of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza as a Driver for Zoonotic Spillover, Asia.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza H5Nx viruses remain a major zoonotic threat, yet global attention has focused largely on clade 2.3.4.4b, potentially overlooking major changes within long-endemic H5N1 lineages in Asia. Recent reports from South and Southeast Asia describe the emergence of reassortant clade 2.3.2.1 viruses alongside renewed human infections after apparent prolonged epidemiologic stability. Collectively, those events suggest a regional pattern rather than isolated anomalies. In this article, we argue that reassortment, rather than point mutation alone, might be an underrecognized driver of zoonotic risk in endemic H5N1 lineages and is reshaping those lineages. We examine why such events might be underrecognized in settings with entrenched poultry influenza, identify limitations of current surveillance systems, and call for integrated, real-time approaches linking genomic detection with phenotypic assessment across animal and human health sectors to enable timely risk assessment and coordinated public health action.

Asia↗

PubMed2026

Viral community structure in New Zealand's aquatic birds is associated with scavenging behavior.

Wild migratory birds play a major role in the global spread of viruses, yet the ecological drivers underpinning viral diversity and transmission, particularly host behavior, remain poorly understood. Aotearoa/New Zealand provides a powerful system to address this, including unique species that reflect its geographical isolation, yet with international connections provided by migratory birds across the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and Antarctic regions. Herein, we conducted a large-scale metatranscriptomic survey of wild birds across New Zealand and its subantarctic islands, in which we collected 1,348 samples from 690 individuals across 31 host species spanning four avian orders. We identified 118 avian viruses from 17 families, including 107 novel species, expanding our knowledge of avian viral diversity. Notably, viral community composition was most strongly associated with bird scavenging behavior, which explained more variation than host taxonomy, geography, or migratory status. Scavenging birds and opportunistic scavengers harbored more diverse viromes than non-scavengers, consistent with increased viral exposure across trophic levels. This was supported by the detection of 12 mammalian-associated viruses, primarily in scavengers, including hedgehog hepatovirus, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus 2, and sea lion astroviruses, with host sequence data confirming dietary origin. We also detected viruses of epidemiological and evolutionary interest, including a low-pathogenic avian influenza A(H1N9) virus from red knots (Calidris canutus) and a divergent tobanivirus from Auckland Island teal (Anas aucklandica), which represented the first putative avian member of the Tobaniviridae. These findings suggest that virome structure in wild birds is associated with scavenging behavior, thus highlighting the importance of incorporating host ecology into viral surveillance and risk assessment.

New Zealand↗

PubMed2026

Evaluating sampling strategies for the detection of avian influenza viruses in the environment.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) viruses pose an increasing threat to wildlife, livestock and human health, underscoring the need for scalable and early-warning surveillance systems. Environmental RNA (eRNA) monitoring offers a non-invasive, cost-effective alternative to traditional host-based sampling by detecting viral genetic material shed into the environment. Despite its utility, the relative performance of different environmental sampling approaches for avian influenza virus (AIV) detection remains poorly resolved. Here, we conducted a longitudinal study with monthly sampling over approximately one year across two urban waterfowl ponds in Aotearoa New Zealand to evaluate four eRNA sampling strategies - fresh faeces, sediment, active-filtered water and passive-filtered water - for their ability to detect AIV. Using a combination of metagenomic sequencing and RT-qPCR, we show that all sample types can detect AIV, although detections were highly inconsistent across sampling methods, locations and time points. While metagenomic sequencing provided valuable genomic data, including subtype identification and phylogenetic context, RT-qPCR exhibited greater sensitivity, with active-filtered water yielding the highest detection rates, and is currently the more cost-effective approach for large-scale surveillance. Notably, AIV detections were asynchronous among sample types and frequently lacked temporal concordance, suggesting that environmental heterogeneity, RNA persistence, and methodological detection limits strongly influence surveillance outcomes. Despite these inconsistencies, phylogenetic analyses revealed that detected viruses belong to established Australasian lineages, highlighting the ability of environmental surveillance to capture ecologically relevant viral diversity. Our findings demonstrate that while eRNA-based surveillance holds substantial promise as a complementary tool for AIV monitoring, its effectiveness is highly dependent on the environmental sampling strategies and laboratory detection methods used.

Ducks↗

PubMed2025

Making sense of the virome in light of evolution and ecology.

Understanding the patterns and drivers of viral prevalence and abundance is of key importance for understanding pathogen emergence. Over the last decade, metagenomic sequencing has exponentially expanded our knowledge of the diversity and evolution of viruses associated with all domains of life. However, as most of these 'virome' studies are primarily descriptive, our understanding of the predictors of virus prevalence, abundance and diversity, and their variation in space and time, remains limited. For example, we do not yet understand the relative importance of ecological predictors (e.g. seasonality and habitat) versus evolutionary predictors (e.g. host and virus phylogenies) in driving virus prevalence and diversity. Few studies are set up to reveal the factors that predict the virome composition of individual hosts, populations or species. In addition, most studies of virus ecology represent a snapshot of single species viromes at a single point in time and space. Fortunately, recent studies have begun to use metagenomic data to directly test hypotheses about the evolutionary and ecological factors which drive virus prevalence, sharing and diversity. By synthesizing evidence across studies, we present some over-arching ecological and evolutionary patterns in virome composition, and illustrate the need for additional work to quantify the drivers of virus prevalence and diversity.

Virome↗