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Avian keratin disorder of Alaska black-capped chickadees is associated with Poecivirus infection

Overview of attention for article published in Virology Journal, June 2018
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (87th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (94th percentile)

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1 news outlet
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4 X users
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2 Wikipedia pages

Citations

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18 Dimensions

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23 Mendeley
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Title
Avian keratin disorder of Alaska black-capped chickadees is associated with Poecivirus infection
Published in
Virology Journal, June 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12985-018-1008-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Maxine Zylberberg, Caroline Van Hemert, Colleen M. Handel, Joseph L. DeRisi

Abstract

Avian keratin disorder (AKD) is an epizootic of debilitating beak deformities, first documented in black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) in Alaska during the late 1990s. Similar deformities have now been recorded in dozens of species of birds across multiple continents. Despite this, the etiology of AKD has remained elusive, making it difficult to assess the impacts of this disease on wild populations. We previously identified an association between infection with a novel picornavirus, Poecivirus, and AKD in a small cohort of black-capped chickadees. To test if the association between Poecivirus and AKD holds in a larger study population, we used targeted PCR followed by Sanger sequencing to screen 124 symptomatic and asymptomatic black-capped chickadees for Poecivirus infection. We further compared the efficacy of multiple non-terminal field sampling methods (buccal swabs, cloacal swabs, fecal samples, and blood samples) for Poecivirus screening. Finally, we used both in situ hybridization and a strand-specific expression assay to localize Poecivirus to beak tissue of AKD-positive individuals and to determine if virus is actively replicating in beak tissue. Poecivirus was detected in 28/28 (100%) individuals with AKD, but only 9/96 (9.4%) asymptomatic individuals with apparently normal beaks (p < 0.0001). We found that cloacal swabs are the most sensitive of these sample types for detecting Poecivirus in birds with AKD, but that buccal swabs should be combined with cloacal swabs in evaluating the infection status of asymptomatic birds. Finally, we used both in situ hybridization and a strand-specific expression assay to localize Poecivirus to beak tissue of AKD-positive individuals and to provide evidence of active viral replication. The data presented here show a strong, statistically significant relationship between Poecivirus infection and AKD, and provide evidence that Poecivirus is indeed an avian virus, infecting and actively replicating in beak tissue of AKD-affected BCCH. Taken together, these data corroborate and extend the evidence for a potential causal association between Poecivirus and AKD in the black-capped chickadee. Poecivirus continues to warrant further investigation as a candidate agent of AKD.

X Demographics

X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 23 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 23 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 6 26%
Other 5 22%
Student > Bachelor 5 22%
Student > Postgraduate 2 9%
Student > Ph. D. Student 1 4%
Other 1 4%
Unknown 3 13%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 7 30%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 5 22%
Environmental Science 4 17%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 1 4%
Medicine and Dentistry 1 4%
Other 0 0%
Unknown 5 22%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 16. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 May 2021.
All research outputs
#1,906,540
of 23,573,357 outputs
Outputs from Virology Journal
#142
of 3,120 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#41,660
of 329,853 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Virology Journal
#2
of 36 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,573,357 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 91st percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 3,120 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 25.8. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 329,853 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 36 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its contemporaries.