Waterfowl and shorebirds are the primary hosts of influenza A virus (IAV), however, in most surveillance efforts, large populations of birds are not routinely examined; specifically marine ducks and other birds that reside predominately on or near the ocean. We conducted a long-term study sampling sea ducks and gulls in coastal Maine for IAV and found a virus prevalence (1.7%) much lower than is typically found in freshwater duck populations. We found wide year-to-year variation in virus detection in sea ducks and that the ocean water temperature was an important factor affecting IAV prevalence. In particular, the ocean temperature that occurred 11 d prior to collecting virus positive samples was important while water temperature measured concurrently with host sampling had no explanatory power for viral detection. We also experimentally showed that IAV is relatively unstable in sea water at temperatures typically found during our sampling. This represents the first report of virus prevalence and actual environmental data that help explain the variation in marine IAV transmission dynamics.

中文翻译：

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海洋鸟类中禽流感病毒的流行取决于海洋温度。

水禽和shore鸟是甲型流感病毒（IAV）的主要宿主，但是，在大多数监视工作中，并未对大量鸟类进行例行检查。特别是主要栖息在海洋上或附近的海鸭和其他鸟类。我们进行了一项长期研究，对缅因州沿海的海鸭和海鸥进行IAV采样，发现其病毒患病率（1.7％）比淡水鸭种群中的典型感染率低得多。我们发现海鸭中病毒检测的逐年变化很大，并且海水温度是影响IAV流行的重要因素。特别是，在收集病毒阳性样本之前11天发生的海洋温度很重要，而与宿主采样同时测量的水温没有病毒检测的解释力。我们还通过实验表明，在我们采样期间通常发现的温度下，IAV在海水中相对不稳定。这是第一份有关病毒流行率和实际环境数据的报告，有助于解释海洋IAV传播动态的变化。