Salud de aves carroñeras y su relación con la actividad humana

PLAZA PABLO IGNACIO; WIEMEYER GUILLERMO; LAMBERTUCCI SERGIO

Macroscopia

PNNH

Año: 2015

1853-2705

Vultures perform an important ecological service by removing carrion from the environment, which cultivates the development and transmission of several diseases. During several years, we have trapped Andean condors, Black vultures and Turkey vultures in farms from the surroundings of San Carlos de Bariloche city. The aim of these captures is to carry out investigations on the movement ecology and health of individuals which include toxicological, bacteriological and virological determinations. We have detected the presence of lead in the blood of all the specimens of the three species analyzed. Many of these values exceed the tolerable threshold (10 μg/dl) for their survival. We have identified specimens with a positive culture for pathological bacteria such as Salmonella spp, as well as Chlamydophila psittaci. We have not detected positive results respect to the exposure to the Influenza virus and the West Nile virus yet, but more samples are needed. Our results show that lead poisoning is a relevant problem for vultures in the area of Nahuel Huapi National Park, probably due to the ammunitions used for hunting. We believe that it is necessary to implement regulations to control the use of lead ammunitions inside the National Park and in its surroundings in order to conserve those species, and to maintain the ecological services they provide.