Going Viral: what we know and can learn

GANSER C; NIEDERWERDER M; D'AMICO VL; SANDERCOCK B; GROND K; CONSTANCE L

Paracas

Congreso; VII Western Hemisphere Shorebird Group Meeting; 2017

Migratory shorebird populations have experienced large declines due to both natural and anthropogenic causes.Little is known about the effect of disease on shorebird populations and on how pathogen pressure variesthroughout their annual cycle. The majority of studies have focused on the occurrence of one pathogen speciesin one or more bird species at a single site or time period, which limits interpretation and extrapolation of resultsto a broader suite of species and sites. In our presentation, we will discuss the diversity of viral, bacterial andprotozoan pathogens of migratory shorebirds, as well as assessing the prevalence and infection intensity ofcommon pathogens that are of special interest for avian and public health. we collected fecal and blood samplesfrom 13 shorebird species at 10 arctic breeding sites in Alaska and Canada, two staging sites (Washingtonand Delaware, EE.UU.) and one non-breeding site (Argentina) throughout the western hemisphere, which weanalyzed using high-throughput sequencing and targeted (quantitative) PCR. Among others, we found site-relateddifferences in Campylobacter jejuni prevalence, with highest prevalence in Argentina and the arctic. In addition,we used microarrays to identify eukaryote, fungal, bacterial and viral pathogens in blood samples collected fromshorebirds at these sites. We aimed to shed light on the physical health of shorebird populations over a largegeographical gradient, and identify areas of increasing infection risk.