Background. This study investigates the viable persistence of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) in various types of artificially frozen environmental water and evaluates the feasibility of similar occurrence taking place in nature, and allowing for prolonged abiotic virus survival, with subsequent biotic viral recirculation. Methods. Fresh, brackish, and salty water, taken in Japan from aquatic biotopes regularly visited by migratory waterfowl, were seeded with AIVs. We monthly monitored the viability of the seeded viruses in the frozen state at ？20°C and ？30°C, for 12 months. We also monitored virus viability following repeatedly induced freezing and thawing. Results. The viruses exhibited considerable viable persistence all along that period of time, as well as during freezing-thawing cycles. Appreciable, yet noncrucial variances were observed in relation to some of the parameters examined. Conclusions. As typical waterborne pathogens of numerous northerly aquatic birds, AIVs are innately adapted to both the body temperature of their hosts (40°C to 42°C) and, presumably, to subzero temperatures of frozen lakes (down to ？54°C in parts of Siberia) occupied and virus-seeded by subclinically infected birds, prior to freezing. Marked cryostability of AIVs appears to be evident. Preservation in environmental ice has significant ecophylogenetic and epidemiological implications, potentially, and could account for various unexplained phenomena. 1. Background A wide diversity of bacteria, protozoa, and viruses are known to exist in various water bodies worldwide, including ponds, lakes, seas, and oceans [1]. In arctic and sub-arctic regions, those water bodies are frozen, entirely or partially, for 4 months (in the southern Taiga) up to 10 months (in the northern Tundra and Arctic Ocean), annually, in the form of seasonal ice. In the Arctic, perennial ice is found too across the Arctic Ocean and freshwater bodies located in Greenland and islands of the Arctic Ocean. All those water bodies are abundantly visited by migratory aquatic birds whenever partially or completely thawed. Consequently, microorganisms that are shed through feces by the birds into water become waterborne, until contracted again by a host or entrapped within refreezing water. In the case of viruses, as obligatory parasites, they are otherwise apt to perish, sooner or later; hence, whenever entrapped in ice, their cryotolerance might constitute a critical factor, in terms of persisting viability, meaning infectivity. The higher their cryotolerance, the longer is the period of time they are
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