Contributions to seabird health and wellbeing: best practices for preventing disease introductions to seabird colonies and enhancing seabird health knowledge by collecting samples from bycaught seabirds.

UHART, M.; GALLO. L.; QUINTANA, F.; FRERE, E.; GILARDI, K.

Conferencia; 2nd World Seabird Conference; 2015

Infectious diseases have the potential to cause rapid declines and extinction in vulnerable seabird populations. Human presence can inadvertently contribute to pathogen introduction and spread in otherwise secluded seabird strongholds. Biological monitoring of populations requires periodic visitation to breeding sites, and some colonies are increasingly subject to (oftentimes-unregulated) public visitation. Yet very few sites have implemented biosecurity protocols and best practices guidelines for use by researchers and visitors to minimize the risk of disease introduction and transmission. Furthermore, lack of information prevents a thorough and accurate evaluation of the current and potential impact of diseases on seabird populations. Access to specimens for health evaluation is generally restricted, expensive and logistically challenging. For some species however, efforts to monitor the impact of fisheries through on-board observers is common practice. Nevertheless, seabird by-catch carcasses recovered from fisheries are currently under-utilized. With proper protocols and training, evaluation of carcasses from by-catch events could not only provide valuable information on population-level demographics, distribution patterns, genetics, and food habits, but also on overall health condition, pollution loads, and disease exposure, allowing for the establishment of baseline health data for many species, and the early identification of pathological processes. This presentation will expand on a series of recommendations and technologies for improvement of seabird health knowledge and wellbeing, based on models being developed for albatrosses and large petrels.