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. 2025 Apr;19(4):e70099.
doi: 10.1111/irv.70099.

Avian Influenza Virus Surveillance Across New Zealand and Its Subantarctic Islands Detects H1N9 in Migratory Shorebirds, but Not 2.3.4.4b HPAI H5N1

Stephanie J Waller  1 , Janelle R Wierenga  1 , Lia Heremia  1 , Jessica A Darnley  1 , Isa de Vries  1 , Jeremy Dubrulle  1 , Zoe Robinson  1 , Allison K Miller  2 , Chris N Niebuhr  3 , David S Melville  4 , Rob Schuckard  5 , Phil F Battley  6 , Michelle Wille  7   8 , Ben Alai  9 , Rosalind Cole  9 , Jamie Cooper  9 , Ursula Ellenberg  10   11   12 , Graeme Elliott  9 , James Faulkner  9 , Johannes H Fischer  9 , Jim Fyfe  9 , Lance Hay  9 , David Houston  9 , Bianca C Keys  13 , Jenny Long  9 , Robin Long  14 , Thomas Mattern  11   12   13   14 , Hollie McGovern  9 , Lou McNutt  9 , Peter Moore  9 , Odin Neil  9 , Jake Osborne  9 , Anne-Sophie Pagé  9 , Kevin A Parker  15 , Mike Perry  9 , Brodie Philp  9 , Julia Reid  9 , Kalinka Rexer-Huber  16 , James C Russell  17 , Rachael Sagar  9 , Thor T Ruru  9   14 , Theo Thompson  9 , Leith Thomson  9 , Joris Tinnemans  9 , Lydia Uddstrom  9 , Te Arawhetu Waipoua  9   10 , Kath Walker  9 , Edin Whitehead  16   18 , Chrissy Wickes  9 , Melanie J Young  9 , Kate McInnes  9 , David Winter  19 , Jemma L Geoghegan  1
Affiliations

Avian Influenza Virus Surveillance Across New Zealand and Its Subantarctic Islands Detects H1N9 in Migratory Shorebirds, but Not 2.3.4.4b HPAI H5N1

Stephanie J Waller et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2025 Apr.

Abstract

Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) virus subtype H5N1 has never been detected in New Zealand. The potential impact of this virus on New Zealand's wild birds would be catastrophic. To expand our knowledge of avian influenza viruses across New Zealand, we sampled wild aquatic birds from New Zealand, its outer islands and its subantarctic territories. Metatranscriptomic analysis of 700 individuals spanning 33 species revealed no detection of H5N1 during the annual 2023-2024 migration. A single detection of H1N9 in red knots (Calidris canutus) was noted. This study provides a baseline for expanding avian influenza virus monitoring in New Zealand.

Keywords: 2.3.4.4b HPAI; H1N9; H5N1; New Zealand; avian influenza virus; subantarctic islands; surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Locations and species sampled during 2023–2024. Map (left) showing the 13 locations where birds were sampled during this study with the Firth of Thames in bold due to the detection of avian influenza virus in birds at this location. Table (right) listing the locations, taxonomic order, species (common name) and number of individual birds that were sampled. Both oral and cloacal swabs were taken from each individual, totalling 1400 samples.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Time‐calibrated maximum likelihood phylogenetic trees of H1 and N9 subtypes. Maximum likelihood time‐scaled phylogenetic trees using IQ‐Tree v1.6.12 [13] of (a) H1 and (b) N9. Each phylogenetic tree contains the closest 100 genetic relatives from a nucleotide BLAST search as well as all publicly available sequences within each segment subtype (n = 1332 for H1 and n = 2010 for N9) obtained from Bacterial and Viral Bioinformatics Resource Center (https://www.bv‐brc.org/searches/GenomeSearch), aligned using MAFFT [14]. The enlarged images to the right of the phylogenetic trees shows the topological position of Influenza A/Red knot/Firth of Thames/1/2024(H1N9), with ultrafast bootstrapping [15] values of > 70%, denoted by an asterisk. Tip colours represent the continents from which the sequences were sampled corresponding to the map above.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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