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Taylor LU, Ronconi RA, Spina HA, Jones MEB, Ogbunugafor CB, Ayala AJ. Limited Outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Influenza A(H5N1) in Herring Gull Colony, Canada, 2022. Emerg Infect Dis 2023; 29:2150-2154. [PMID: 37619593 PMCID: PMC10521612 DOI: 10.3201/eid2910.230536] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 08/26/2023] Open
Abstract
In summer 2022, highly pathogenic influenza A(H5N1) virus reached the herring gull (Larus argentatus subspecies smithsonianus) breeding colony on Kent Island, New Brunswick, Canada. Real-time monitoring revealed a self-limiting outbreak with low mortality. Proactive seabird surveillance is crucial for monitoring such limited outbreaks, protecting seabirds, and tracing zoonotic transmission routes.
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Rasmussen EA, Czaja A, Cuthbert FJ, Tan GS, Lemey P, Nelson MI, Culhane MR. Influenza A viruses in gulls in landfills and freshwater habitats in Minnesota, United States. Front Genet 2023; 14:1172048. [PMID: 37229191 PMCID: PMC10203411 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2023.1172048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/23/2023] [Accepted: 04/10/2023] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Introduction: The unpredictable evolution of avian influenza viruses (AIVs) presents an ongoing threat to agricultural production and public and wildlife health. Severe outbreaks of highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses in US poultry and wild birds since 2022 highlight the urgent need to understand the changing ecology of AIV. Surveillance of gulls in marine coastal environments has intensified in recent years to learn how their long-range pelagic movements potentially facilitate inter-hemispheric AIV movements. In contrast, little is known about inland gulls and their role in AIV spillover, maintenance, and long-range dissemination. Methods: To address this gap, we conducted active AIV surveillance in ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) and Franklin's gulls (Leucophaeus pipixcan) in Minnesota's natural freshwater lakes during the summer breeding season and in landfills during fall migration (1,686 samples). Results: Whole-genome AIV sequences obtained from 40 individuals revealed three-lineage reassortants with a mix of genome segments from the avian Americas lineage, avian Eurasian lineage, and a global "Gull" lineage that diverged more than 50 years ago from the rest of the AIV global gene pool. No poultry viruses contained gull-adapted H13, NP, or NS genes, pointing to limited spillover. Geolocators traced gull migration routes across multiple North American flyways, explaining how inland gulls imported diverse AIV lineages from distant locations. Migration patterns were highly varied and deviated far from assumed "textbook" routes. Discussion: Viruses circulating in Minnesota gulls during the summer breeding season in freshwater environments reappeared in autumn landfills, evidence of AIV persistence in gulls between seasons and transmission between habitats. Going forward, wider adoption of technological advances in animal tracking devices and genetic sequencing is needed to expand AIV surveillance in understudied hosts and habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A. Rasmussen
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
| | - Agata Czaja
- Computational Biology Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Francesca J. Cuthbert
- Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Gene S. Tan
- J. Craig Venter Institute, La Jolla, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
| | - Philippe Lemey
- Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Martha I. Nelson
- Computational Biology Branch, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States
| | - Marie R. Culhane
- Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States
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Gilg O, van Bemmelen RSA, Lee H, Park JY, Kim HJ, Kim DW, Lee WY, Sokolovskis K, Solovyeva DV. Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0281827. [PMID: 36795774 PMCID: PMC9934386 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0281827] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/19/2022] [Accepted: 02/01/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Large gulls are generalist predators that play an important role in Arctic food webs. Describing the migratory patterns and phenology of these predators is essential to understanding how Arctic ecosystems function. However, from all six large Arctic gull taxa, including three long-distance migrants, to date seasonal movements have been studied only in three and with small sample sizes. To document the flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull, a widespread but little-studied Siberian migrant, we monitored 28 individuals with GPS loggers over a mean period of 383 days. Birds used similar routes in spring and autumn, preferring coastal to inland or offshore routes, and travelled 4000-5500 km between their breeding (Siberia) and wintering grounds (mainly the Republic of Korea and Japan). Spring migration mainly occurred in May, and was twice as fast and more synchronized among individuals than autumn migration. Migration bouts mainly occurred during the day and twilight, but rates of travel were always higher during the few night flights. Flight altitudes were nearly always higher during migration bouts than during other bouts, and lower during twilight than during night or day. Altitudes above 2000m were recorded during migrations, when birds made non-stop inland flights over mountain ranges and vast stretches of the boreal forest. Individuals showed high inter-annual consistency in their movements in winter and summer, indicating strong site fidelity to their breeding and wintering sites. Within-individual variation was similar in spring and autumn, but between individual variation was higher in autumn than in spring. Compared to previous studies, our results suggest that the timing of spring migration in large Arctic gulls is likely constrained by snowmelt at breeding grounds, while the duration of migration windows could be related to the proportion of inland versus coastal habitats found along their flyways ('fly-and-forage' strategy). Ongoing environmental changes are hence likely in short term to alter the timing of their migration, and in long term possibly affect the duration if e.g. the resource availability along the route changes in the future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olivier Gilg
- UMR 6249 Chrono-Environnement, CNRS, Université de Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
- Groupe de Recherche en Ecologie Arctique (GREA), Francheville, France
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Hansoo Lee
- Korea Institute of Environmental Ecology (KOECO), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Jin-Young Park
- National Migratory Bird Research Center, National Institute of Biological Resources, Ongjin-gun, Republic of Korea
| | - Hwa-Jung Kim
- National Migratory Bird Research Center, National Institute of Biological Resources, Ongjin-gun, Republic of Korea
| | - Dong-Won Kim
- National Migratory Bird Research Center, National Institute of Biological Resources, Ongjin-gun, Republic of Korea
| | - Won Y. Lee
- Division of Life Sciences, Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Republic of Korea
| | | | - Diana V. Solovyeva
- Laboratory of Ornithology, Institute of Biological Problems of the North, Magadan, Russia
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Migratory Movements and Home Ranges of Geographically Distinct Wintering Populations of a Soaring Bird. DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14121109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Migratory soaring birds exhibit spatiotemporal variation in their circannual movements. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain how different winter environments affect the circannual movement patterns of migratory soaring birds. Here, we investigated annual movement strategies of American white pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos (hereafter, pelican) from two geographically distinct wintering grounds in the Southern and Northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). We hypothesized that hourly movement distance and home range size of a soaring bird would differ between different geographic regions because of different thermals and wind conditions and resource availability. We calculated average and maximum hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges of GPS-tracking pelicans. We then evaluated the effects of hour of the day, seasons, two wintering regions in the Southern and Northern GOM, human footprint index, and relative pelican abundance from Christmas Bird Count data on pelican hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges using linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models. American white pelicans moved at greatest hourly distance near 1200 h at breeding grounds and during spring and autumn migrations. Both wintering populations in the Northern and Southern GOM exhibited similar hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges at the shared breeding grounds and during spring and autumn migrations. However, pelicans wintering in the Southern GOM showed shorter hourly movement distances and smaller seasonal home ranges than those in the Northern GOM. Hourly movement distances and home ranges of pelicans increased with increasing human footprint index. Winter hourly movements and home ranges of pelicans differed between the Northern and Southern GOM; however, the winter difference in pelican movements did not carry over to the shared breeding grounds during summers. Therefore, exogenous factors may be the primary drivers to shape the flying patterns of migratory soaring birds.
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Galaktionov KV, Solovyeva AI, Blakeslee AMH, Skírnisson K. Overview of renicolid digeneans (Digenea, Renicolidae) from marine gulls of northern Holarctic with remarks on their species statuses, phylogeny and phylogeography. Parasitology 2022; 150:1-23. [PMID: 36321423 PMCID: PMC10090622 DOI: 10.1017/s0031182022001500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 10/02/2022] [Accepted: 10/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Renicolid digeneans parasitize aquatic birds. Their intramolluscan stages develop in marine and brackish-water gastropods, while metacercariae develop in molluscs and fishes. The systematics of renicolids is poorly developed, their life cycles are mostly unknown, and the statuses of many species require revision. Here, we establish based on integrated morphological and molecular data that adult renicolids from gulls Larus argentatus and Larus schistisagus and sporocysts and cercariae of Cercaria parvicaudata from marine snails Littorina spp. are life-cycle stages of the same species. We name it Renicola parvicaudatus and synonymized with it Renicola roscovitus. An analysis of the cox1 gene of R. parvicaudatus from Europe, North America and North Asia demonstrates a low genetic divergence, suggesting that this species has formed quite recently (perhaps during last glacial maximum) and that interregional gene flow is high. In Littorina saxatilis and L. obtusata from the Barents Sea, molecular analysis has revealed intramolluscan stages of Cercaria littorinae saxatilis VIII, a cryptic species relative to R. parvicaudatus. In the molecular trees, Renicola keimahuri from L. schistisagus belongs to another clade than R. parvicaudatus. We show that the species of this clade have cercariae of Rhodometopa group and outline morphological and behavioural transformations leading from xiphidiocercariae to these larvae. Molecular analysis has revealed 3 main phylogenetic branches of renicolids, differing in structure of adults, type of cercariae and host range. Our results elucidate the patterns of host colonization and geographical expansion of renicolids and pave the way to the solution of some long-standing problems of their classification.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kirill V. Galaktionov
- Laboratory of Parasitic Worms and Protists, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia
| | - Anna I. Solovyeva
- Laboratory of Parasitic Worms and Protists, Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 199034, Russia
- Laboratory of Non-Coding DNA, Institute of Cytology of Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg 194064, Russia
| | - April M. H. Blakeslee
- Department of Biology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
- Marine Invasions Lab, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD, USA
| | - Karl Skírnisson
- Laboratory of Parasitology, Institute for Experimental Pathology, University of Iceland, Keldur, Reykjavik, Iceland
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Variation in migration behaviors used by Arctic Terns (Sterna paradisaea) breeding across a wide latitudinal gradient. Polar Biol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00300-022-03043-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Ineson KM, Hill NJ, Clark DE, MacKenzie KG, Whitney JJ, Laskaris Y, Ronconi RA, Ellis JC, Giroux JF, Lair S, Stevens S, Puryear WB, Runstadler JA. Age and season predict influenza A virus dynamics in urban gulls: consequences for natural hosts in unnatural landscapes. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2022; 32:e2497. [PMID: 34783416 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/07/2021] [Revised: 06/01/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Gulls are ubiquitous in urban areas due to a growing reliance on anthropogenic feeding sites, which has led to changes in their abundance, distribution, and migration ecology, with implications for disease transmission. Gulls offer a valuable model for testing hypotheses regarding the dynamics of influenza A virus (IAV) - for which gulls are a natural reservoir in urban areas. We sampled sympatric populations of Ring-billed (Larus delawarensis), Herring (L. argentatus), and Great Black-backed Gulls (L. marinus) along the densely populated Atlantic rim of North America to understand how IAV transmission is influenced by drivers such as annual cycle, host species, age, habitat type, and their interplay. We found that horizontal transmission, rather than vertical transmission, played an outsized role in the amplification of IAV due to the convergence of gulls from different breeding grounds and age classes. We detected overlapping effects of age and season in our prevalence model, identifying juveniles during autumn as the primary drivers of the seasonal epidemic in gulls. Gulls accumulated immunity over their lifespan, however short-term fluctuations in seroprevalence were observed, suggesting that migration may impose limits on the immune system to maintain circulating antibodies. We found that gulls in coastal urban habitats had higher viral prevalence than gulls captured inland, correlating with higher richness of waterbird species along the coast, a mechanism supported by our movement data. The peak in viral prevalence in newly fledged gulls that are capable of long-distance movement has important implications for the spread of pathogens to novel hosts during the migratory season as well as for human health as gulls increasingly utilize urban habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katherine M Ineson
- Department of Natural Resources & the Environment, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire, 03824, USA
| | - Nichola J Hill
- Department of Biology, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts, 02125, USA
| | - Daniel E Clark
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Kenneth G MacKenzie
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Jillian J Whitney
- Division of Water Supply Protection, Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, West Boylston, Massachusetts, 01583, USA
| | - Yianni Laskaris
- US Fish and Wildlife Service, Galloway, New Jersey, 08205, USA
| | - Robert A Ronconi
- Canadian Wildlife Service, Environment and Climate Change Canada, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, B2Y 2N6, Canada
| | - Julie C Ellis
- Department of Pathobiology, Wildlife Futures Program, University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, 19348, USA
| | - Jean-François Giroux
- Département des sciences biologiques, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3P8, Canada
| | - Stéphane Lair
- Centre québécois sur la santé des animaux sauvages/Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, J2S 2M2, Canada
| | - Skyler Stevens
- Division of Mathematics, Physical, and Natural Sciences, University of New Mexico, Gallup, New Mexico, 87301, USA
| | - Wendy B Puryear
- Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, 01536, USA
| | - Jonathan A Runstadler
- Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health, Tufts University, North Grafton, Massachusetts, 01536, USA
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Baak JE, Mallory ML, Anderson CM, Auger-Méthé M, Macdonald CA, Janssen MH, Gilchrist HG, Provencher JF, Gutowsky SE. Inter-individual variation in the migratory behaviour of a generalist seabird, the herring gull (Larus smithsoniansus), from the Canadian Arctic. ANIMAL MIGRATION 2021. [DOI: 10.1515/ami-2020-0109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/25/2022] Open
Abstract
Abstract
The Arctic is warming three times faster than the rest of the globe, causing rapid transformational changes in Arctic ecosystems. As these changes increase, understanding seabird movements will be important for predicting how they respond to climate change, and thus how we plan for conservation. Moreover, as most Arctic-breeding seabirds only spend the breeding season in the Arctic, climate change may also affect them through habitat changes in their non-breeding range. We used Global Location Sensors (GLS) to provide new insights on the movement of Arctic-breeding herring gulls (Larus smithsoniansus) in North America. We tracked gulls that wintered in the Gulf of Mexico (n = 7) or the Great Lakes (n = 1), and found that migratory routes and stopover sites varied between individuals, and between southbound and northbound migration. This inter-individual variation suggests that herring gulls, as a generalist species, can make use of an array of regions during migration, but may be more susceptible to climate change impacts in their overwintering locations than during migration. However, due to our limited sample size, future, multi-year studies are recommended to better understand the impacts of climate change on this Arctic-breeding seabird.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia E. Baak
- Department of Natural Resource Sciences , McGill University , Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, H9X 3V9 , Canada
| | - Mark L. Mallory
- Department of Biology , Acadia University , Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4P 2R6 , Canada
| | - Christine M. Anderson
- Department of Biology , Carleton University , 1125 Colonel By Dr, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6
| | - Marie Auger-Méthé
- Department of Statistics, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries , University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 , Canada
| | | | - Michael H. Janssen
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre , Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3 , Canada
| | - H. Grant Gilchrist
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre , Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3 , Canada
| | - Jennifer F. Provencher
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre , Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0H3 , Canada
| | - Sarah E. Gutowsky
- Department of Biology , Acadia University , Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4P 2R6 , Canada
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Jardine AM, Provencher JF, Pratte I, Holland ER, Baak JE, Robertson GJ, Mallory ML. Annual plastic ingestion and isotopic niche patterns of two sympatric gull species at Newfoundland, Canada. MARINE POLLUTION BULLETIN 2021; 173:112991. [PMID: 34571381 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2021] [Revised: 09/12/2021] [Accepted: 09/19/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Ingestion of plastic pollution by pelagic seabirds is well-documented globally, but increasingly, researchers are investigating plastic ingestion in generalist predators and scavengers like gulls. We studied the gut contents of two sympatric gull species, American herring gulls (Larus smithsoniansus) and great black-backed gulls (L. marinus), collected year-round as part of "kill-to-scare" measures at the regional sanitary landfill in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, to compare ingested anthropogenic debris, trophic position and diet breadth through the year. Although great black-backed gulls fed at a higher trophic level, frequency of occurrence of plastic ingestion was similar to American herring gulls, and varied little through the year. Diet breadth (isotopic niche size) was similar between species, but American herring gulls fed at a lower trophic level during winter, perhaps indicating a change in their reliance on anthropogenic food subsidies throughout their annual cycle.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexander M Jardine
- Biology, Acadia University, 15 University Avenue, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4N 3J2, Canada
| | - Jennifer F Provencher
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre, Raven Road, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0H3, Canada
| | - Isabeau Pratte
- Canadian Wildlife Service, 45 Alderney Drive, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4N6, Canada
| | - Erika R Holland
- Biology, Acadia University, 15 University Avenue, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4N 3J2, Canada
| | - Julia E Baak
- Biology, Acadia University, 15 University Avenue, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4N 3J2, Canada
| | - Gregory J Robertson
- Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 6 Bruce Street, Mount Pearl, Newfoundland and Labrador A1N 4T3, Canada
| | - Mark L Mallory
- Biology, Acadia University, 15 University Avenue, Wolfville, Nova Scotia B4N 3J2, Canada.
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