Dendritobilharzia species have been reported from avian hosts including Aix sponsa, Anas creca, Anas discors, Anas platyrhynchos, Anas querquedula, Anas rhynchotis, Anas superciliosa superciliosa, Aythya affinis, Aythya americana, Aythya ferina, Aythya novaeseelandiae, Bucephala albeola, Bucephala clangula,
Cygnus olor, Cygnus atratus, Cygnus columbianus, Mergus merganser, Mergus serrator, Nettion crecca and Tadorna variegate from Poland (Sulgostowska, 1972; Khalifa, 1976), New Zealand (Rind, 1989), North America (Ulmer and Vande Vusse, 1970), Brazil (Freitas and Costa, 1972), Czech Republic (Kalarova et al., 1989, 1997), Germany (Palm, 1965); Texas (Canaris et al., 1981), India (Chauhan et al., 1973 and France (Bayssade-Dufour et al., 2006).
Besides the trumpeter, two other species of swans are found in North America: the tundra swan (Cygnus columbianus), which nests north of the Arctic Circle, and the mute swan (
Cygnus olor), a Eurasian transplant now common in the Northeast.
We surveyed free-ranging Canada geese (Branta canadensis), trumpeter swans (Cygnus buccinator), mute swans (
Cygnus olor), and mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) to estimate the prevalence of antibodies to avian bornavirus (ABV) and of cloacal shedding of ABV RNA in southern Ontario, Canada.