Molecular detection, risk factor and public awareness of avian bornavirus from captive and non-captive birds in Peninsular Malaysia

Proventricular dilatation disease (PDD) is a fatal disorder and one of the threatening diseases among captive birds and wild birds. This disease is caused by avian bornavirus (ABV) which belongs to the family of Bornaviridae. ABV has been identified in psittacine and non-psittacine birds as well as waterfowls. Birds with PDD may show signs of gastrointestinal tract deficit (e.g., weight loss, regurgitation, passage of undigested food in faeces), or neurological dysfunction (e.g., ataxia, abnormal gait, proprioceptive defects) or even both. ABV is also present in healthy birds with no clinical signs of PDD. ABV infections have been reported in several countries such as Japan, Brazil, Thailand, South Africa, Germany, Canada, Denmark and North-eastern USA among the group of captives as well as free ranging birds of clinically diseased or healthy birds. Among five species of ABV, Parrot bornavirus (PaBV) 2 and 4 in the group species of Psittaciform 1 bornavirus are the most notably causing the disease. In Malaysia, there was no study of ABV reported in captive as well as wild birds. Therefore, three main objectives of this study were: 1) To determine the molecular prevalence of avian bornavirus in captive and wild birds in Peninsular Malaysia by nucleic acid detection through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay by targeting the M gene; 2) To determine the risk factors associated with ABV infection among captive and non-captive birds that was molecularly detected positive and 3) To assess the level of public awareness on ABV and its associated diseases via a set of knowledge, attitude, practice (KAP) questionnaires.. Total of 344 cloacal swabs or faeces were collected from various species of captive and non-captive birds at various regions of Peninsular Malaysia, and were subjected to detection of ABV using RT-PCR assay. The positive amplicons were subjected for sequencing for ABV genotypes analyses. Meanwhile, online KAP questionnaires were distributed by using google form platform to the pet bird’s owners. Molecular prevalence studies revealed that 4.5% (9/201) of pet birds were ABV positive with two birds were presenting PDD-like signs and the other seven birds were healthy and had no outward clinical signs of PDD, whereas 0% (0/143) in waterfowls. From the 9 positive pet birds, all were identified to be PaBV-2, which is closest to ABV isolates EU781967 originated from USA. Among the risk factors analyzed, several risk factors which include the category, family, species, age, place as well as management are found to show association with the ABV positivity among the birds. Besides that, a total of 87% (158/181) of respondents were interviewed regarding the diseases (ABV, PDD) using the KAP questionnaires. The majority of respondents have low knowledge on ABV and PDD with a percentage of 32.9% answered correctly. However, they showed a positive attitude and good practice with a total percentage of 60.8% and 94.9% respectively. Meanwhile, the association between knowledge, attitude and practice showed that there was a significant association between knowledge-attitude and also attitude-practice (p<0.05). In conclusion, this study proved that avian bornavirus (ABV) causes proventricular dilatation disease (PDD) among a group of pet birds is present in Peninsular Malaysia but at low prevalence rate. Furthermore, in addition to the useful databases obtained from this study, the level of public awareness on the importance of avian bornavirus that causes fatal disorder among a wide range of bird species is satisfactorily achieved.

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