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Lamb JS, Tornos J, Lejeune M, Boulinier T. Rapid loss of maternal immunity and increase in environmentally mediated antibody generation in urban gulls. Sci Rep 2024; 14:4357. [PMID: 38388645 PMCID: PMC10884025 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-54796-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2023] [Accepted: 02/16/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Monitoring pathogen circulation in wildlife sentinel populations can help to understand and predict the spread of disease at the wildlife-livestock-human interface. Immobile young provide a useful target population for disease surveillance, since they can be easily captured for sampling and their levels of antibodies against infectious agents can provide an index of localized circulation. However, early-life immune responses include both maternally-derived antibodies and antibodies resulting from exposure to pathogens, and disentangling these two processes requires understanding their individual dynamics. We conducted an egg-swapping experiment in an urban-nesting sentinel seabird, the yellow-legged gull, and measured antibody levels against three pathogens of interest (avian influenza virus AIV, Toxoplasma gondii TOX, and infectious bronchitis virus IBV) across various life stages, throughout chick growth, and between nestlings raised by biological or non-biological parents. We found that levels of background circulation differed among pathogens, with AIV antibodies widely present across all life stages, TOX antibodies rarer, and IBV antibodies absent. Antibody titers declined steadily from adult through egg, nestling, and chick stages. For the two circulating pathogens, maternal antibodies declined exponentially after hatching at similar rates, but the rate of linear increase due to environmental exposure was significantly higher in the more prevalent pathogen (AIV). Differences in nestling antibody levels due to parental effects also persisted longer for AIV (25 days, vs. 14 days for TOX). Our results suggest that yellow-legged gulls can be a useful sentinel population of locally transmitted infectious agents, provided that chicks are sampled at ages when environmental exposure outweighs maternal effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juliet S Lamb
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), UMR CNRS 5175, University of Montpellier, EPHE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, IRD, Montpellier, France.
- The Nature Conservancy, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA.
| | - Jérémy Tornos
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), UMR CNRS 5175, University of Montpellier, EPHE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Mathilde Lejeune
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), UMR CNRS 5175, University of Montpellier, EPHE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, IRD, Montpellier, France
| | - Thierry Boulinier
- Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE), UMR CNRS 5175, University of Montpellier, EPHE, University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, IRD, Montpellier, France
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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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Kowalczyk J, Tykałowski B, Śmiałek M, Stenzel T, Dziewulska D, Koncicki A. Effect of a Mineral-Microbial Deodorizing Preparation on the Functions of Internal Organs and the Immune System in Commercial Poultry. Animals (Basel) 2021; 11:ani11092592. [PMID: 34573558 PMCID: PMC8465677 DOI: 10.3390/ani11092592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2021] [Revised: 08/30/2021] [Accepted: 09/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Animal production is identified as one of the main sources of high concentrations of odours, which are related to air pollution, health problems of living organisms and indirect negative impact on production results. One common method for reducing emissions of ammonia is using preparations containing probiotics and hygroscopic or disinfecting compounds. This study was undertaken in order to determine the impact of innovative mineral-microbial deodorizing preparation, which reduces odorous gases, applying to the litter once a week in poultry houses on the physiological status of breeder chickens, broiler chickens and turkeys. Samples were collected after slaughter and analyzed using ELISA tests, flow cytometry and biochemical methods. Biochemical markers of the liver and kidney profile (ALT, AST, LDH, ALP, CK, TP, CALC, PHOS) and the titers of specific antibodies against AEV, aMPV, AAvV-1, IBDV, HEV, BA were analyzed in serum samples. The percentage contribution of T and B lymphocyte subpopulations was determined in the samples of tracheal mucosa, blood, and spleen. No significant differences were found between the control and experimental group with regard to all the analyzed parameters, with some exceptions for biochemistry. The results of our study indicated that mineral-microbial deodorizing preparation did not affect the physiological status of birds.
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IFNγ Production Profile in Turkeys of Different Immunological Status after TRT Vaccination. J Vet Res 2020; 64:239-245. [PMID: 32587910 PMCID: PMC7305653 DOI: 10.2478/jvetres-2020-0040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2020] [Accepted: 05/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction Despite vaccination against avian metapneumoviruses (aMPV), cases of turkey rhinotracheitis (TRT) caused by aMPV field strains are frequently reported. Differences have been shown in the level of immune system stimulation after aMPV vaccination between turkeys that do and do not possess specific anti-aMPV maternally derived antibodies (MDA). The article describes the influence of MDA on the production of IFNγ in the spleen of aMPV-vaccinated turkeys. Material and Methods MDA+ or MDA- turkeys were vaccinated against TRT after hatching or on the 14th day of life. Spleen samples were collected 3, 7, and 14 days post vaccination for mononuclear cell isolation. Real-time PCR, flow cytometry, and the enzyme-linked immunospot assay were used to evaluate the levels of IFNγ gene expression, production, and secretion by cells within the spleen samples. Results Increased IFNγ gene expression was noticed after vaccination only in birds that did not possess MDA or possessed MDA at relatively low level (MDA+ birds vaccinated at 14 DOL). In all birds, an increased percentage of T lymphocytes producing IFNγ was recorded. The proportion of anti-aMPV IFNγ-secreting cells was increased only in MDA- birds. Conclusion Besides having a protective role, MDA are known to interfere with vaccination efficacy. The analysis of our results confirms that MDA can decrease the level of immune system stimulation after aMPV vaccination of turkeys.
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