Emerging avian viruses in the POCTEFA zone: from surveillance to risk assessment
- Project start: 01/01/2026
- End of the project: 12/31/2028
- Principal researcher: Marta Barral
- Financing: INTERREG + FEDER
- Programme: INTERREG POCTEFA 2021-2027
- Call: 2025
- Reference: EFA 279/06
- Acronym: BIRDS
- Total consortium budget: €1,836,133.51 (65% financed)
- NEIKER budget: €94,079.25 (65% financed)
- Partners: ENVT (IHAP ENVT-INRAE) – Jean-Luc GUERIN (coordinator), NEIKER, IRTA (CReSA), UAB, UCLM and ANSES
General Objective
The AVES project aims to structure a cross-border network of expert research teams on emerging avian viral diseases. It will develop innovative strategies to improve the surveillance of emerging avian viruses (avian influenza and orthoflaviviruses) in birds and mammals in the POCTEFA area, using innovative environmental approaches, citizen-based participatory science, and integrating the entire chain from field sampling to in-depth characterization of the risk of evolution and adaptation to different host species and interaction with host ecology.
Specific Objectives
- To obtain a comprehensive view of avian (wild/captive/commercial) and mosquito populations in the context of emerging avian virus transmission.
- To test innovative strategies for early detection and to unravel the dynamics of emerging avian viruses in ecosystems.
- To characterize detected avian influenza viruses and orthoflaviviruses to assess their evolutionary dynamics and the risk of spread from wild birds to domestic birds and mammals, including humans, using in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo approaches.
