Disease risk of shorebirds in the Western Hemisphere: what we know and what we want to discover

GANSER C; SANDERCOCK B; D'AMICO VL; JUMPPNEN A; GROND K; WISELY S

Washington

Conferencia; North American Ornithological Conference; 2016

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 varies throughout their annual cycle. The majority of studies have focused on the occurrence of one pathogen species in one or more bird species at a single site or time period, which limits interpretation and extrapolation of results to a broader suite of species and sites. In our presentation, we will summarize current knowledge on shorebird disease patterns, and address current knowledge gaps by discussing the diversity of viral, bacterial and protozoan pathogens of migratory shorebirds, as well as assessing the prevalence and infection intensity of common pathogens that are of special interest for avian and public health. We collected fecal and blood samples from 13 shorebird species at 10 Arctic breeding sites in Alaska and Canada, two staging sites (Washington & Delaware, USA) and two non-breeding sites (Peru & Argentina) throughout the Western Hemisphere, which we analyzed using high-throughput sequencing and targeted (quantitative) PCR. We aimed to shed light on the physical health of shorebird populations over a large geographical gradient, and identify areas of increasing infection risk.