Dynamics of Bird Epidemics

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $2.5 million grant to a team led by Cornell Lab of Ornithology researcher André Dhondt to continue studies of House Finch eye disease.

Thousands of citizen-science participants of the Lab's House Finch Disease Survey have helped track the spread of the disease across the continent from Maryland, where it was first detected in 1994. The data show that the disease, highly contagious among House Finches, caused some populations to decline by half in a three-year period.

Although House Finch eye disease does not infect humans, in other ways it bears similarities with avian influenza and AIDS because the pathogen spreads through direct contact with a highly mobile host and the pathogen jumps species. (The bacterium that causes House Finch eye disease jumped from chickens to finches). The researchers hope studies of House Finch eye disease will shed light on how other diseases spread.

House Finch by Debbie McKenzie

André Dhondt, the Lab's director of Bird Population Studies, said that a previous grant from NSF enabled the research team to investigate the dynamics of House Finch eye disease epidemics by using mathematical models, controlled experiments, and field studies.

The study found that the disease spread quickly and virulently in the East, but more slowly in the West, with a smaller proportion of birds affected. Dhondt said that the new grant will help researchers figure out why.

House Finches are native to the western United States but were introduced to the East in the 1940s. Because they descended from a small number of individuals, the eastern House Finches have less genetic diversity, causing them to be more susceptible to the disease. Other unknown factors include how climate affects the spread of disease, what other species might carry the disease without showing symptoms, and details of how the disease is transmitted.

—Krishna Ramanujan, Life Sciences writer, Cornell University

Participate in a free citizen-science project, the House Finch Disease Survey, to help researchers learn more about House Finch eye disease. Visit www.birds.cornell.edu/hofi.

For permission to reprint all or part of this article, please contact Laura Erickson, editor, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Rd., Ithaca, NY, 14850. Phone: (607) 254-1114. email: lle24@cornell.edu