PPMV1 or pigeon paramyxovirus type 1 is a virus closely related to

Newcastle disease Virulent Newcastle disease (VND), formerly exotic Newcastle disease, is a contagious viral avian disease affecting many domestic and wild bird species; it is transmissible to humans. Though it can infect humans, most cases are non-symptomatic; ...

which affects domestic pigeons and other bird species. It probably originated in the Middle East but has spread to Europe, the USA and Australia, where it has the potential to infect and kill native bird species.

In Australia

Pigeon paramyxovirus was first detected in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 2011, in

NSW ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 2012 and in

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in 2013. It is now considered endemic in Australia.

Impact

Potential ecological impacts include the transmission of a frequently fatal disease in many bird species worldwide, not just pigeons. Overseas it has infected raptors,

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family (biology), family Phasianidae in the order (biology), order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera na ...

swan Swans are birds of the family (biology), family Anatidae within the genus ''Cygnus''. The swans' closest relatives include the goose, geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form t ...

s and

cockatoo A cockatoo is any of the 21 parrot species belonging to the family Cacatuidae, the only family in the superfamily Cacatuoidea. Along with the Psittacoidea (true parrots) and the Strigopoidea (large New Zealand parrots), they make up the ord ...

s. In Australia, the virus has predominantly infected introduced pigeons but one native species has been diagnosed with the disease - a

collared sparrowhawk The collared sparrowhawk (''Accipiter cirrocephalus'') is a small, slim bird of prey in the family Accipitridae found in Australia, New Guinea and nearby smaller islands. As its name implies the collared sparrowhawk is a specialist in hunting sm ...

which presumably ate a diseased introduced pigeon. With introduced pigeons so widely distributed, scientists are concerned about the further spread to native birds in Australia and nearby

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

, which together house the world’s most diverse native pigeon and dove fauna - a quarter of the world’s total.

Biosecurity

Experts are concerned that there has been a lack of national contingency planning to prevent the entry and spread of Pigeon paramyxovirus in Australia. Although a vaccine to prevent the spread of the virus exists - and is utilised overseas, Australian authorities have reportedly not accessed this vaccine quickly enough.

Evolution

The variant PPMV-1 virus is thought to have originated in the Middle East in the late 1970s, with the putative first isolation being made from meat pigeons in Iraq in 1978. The virus then spread to Italy and North Africa, onwards across Europe and progressively throughout the rest of the world. There were clusters of isolates often formed from viruses isolated over a number of different years. The basis for this clustering is unclear; it could be a product of regional contact and spread within individual groups or federations of pigeon keepers. Every effort has been made to ensure that the selection of viruses included in this study is representative of the circulating PPMV-1 strains; however, because available data are derived from those cases that are reported and investigated, it seems inevitable that some sampling bias may be present and influence the phylogenetic tree topology.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q55863613 Paramyxoviridae Infraspecific virus taxa