Outbreaks of Avian Cholera in Hope Bay, Antarctica

Abstract

During austral summers 1999-2000 and 2000-01, two outbreaks of avian cholera occurred in the Hope Bay area (63 degrees 24'S, 56 degrees 59'W), located on the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Eighty-six dead birds were found: five kelp gulls (Larus dominicanus), 36 skuas (Stercorarius sp.), and 45 Adelie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae). The carcasses were studied using clinical, pathological, and microbiological criteria. Water samples from ponds where birds were settled and samples from 90 healthy birds also were analyzed during the second outbreak. Pasteurella multocida isolates were identified by biochemical tests, capsular type, somatic serotype, and susceptibility to nine antibiotics. Molecular subtyping was performed by ApaI and SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC-PCR). In February 2000, mortality in skuas was 16% and 2% in kelp gulls. In the 2000-01 breeding season, mortality in south polar skuas was 47%, 24% in brown skuas, 1.4% in kelp gulls, and 0.01% in Adelie penguins. All birds had lesions of avian cholera. In kelp gulls the presentation was chronic, whereas skuas and penguins suffered subacute and acute disease, respectively. Fifty-five isolates recovered from dead birds and one from water were identified as P. multocida gallicida, type A:1. The strains presented a unique molecular pattern by PFGE and ERIC-PCR. A possible hypothesis to explain the origin of the outbreaks was that nonbreeder kelp gulls carried P. multocida gallicida to Hope Bay, and avian cholera was transmitted through water to skuas and penguins. This study reports avian cholera in new bird species, their potential role in the transmission of the disease, and the different responses of these species to the disease.

Characterisation and comparison of avian Pasteurella multocida strains by conventional and ERIC-PCR assays

“…Strains of P. multocida isolated from disease conditions in avian hosts are predominantly capsular type A all over the world Jonas et al, 2001;Davies et al, 2004;Leotta et al, 2006). Our study confirmed this observation: 93.5% of our isolates proved to be capsular type A (Table 3).…”

“…The prevalence rates of subspecies gallicida and septica are diverse in the various avian species. Leotta et al (2006) pointed out that the prevalence rate of subspecies gallicida was higher in wild waterfowls than that of subspecies septica. On the other hand, other authors found that subspecies septica was more frequent in poultry (Snipes et al, 1990) and in feral birds (Korbel et al, 1992) than subspecies gallicida.…”

Pasteurella multocida: from Zoonosis to Cellular Microbiology

“…P. multocida is a common commensal or opportunistic pathogen found in the upper respiratory tracts of most livestock, domestic, and wild animals (34), including chickens (126)(127)(128)(129)(130)(131), turkeys (132,133), and other wild birds (123,(134)(135)(136)(137)(138)(139)(140)(141)(142)(143)(144), cattle and bison (121,(145)(146)(147), swine (34, 148-151), rabbits (152)(153)(154), dogs (41, [155][156][157], cats (domestic house cats as well as large wild cats, such as tigers, leopards, cougars, and lions) (39, 42-46, 49, 157-166), goats (125,139,167,168), chimpanzees (169), marine mammals (seals, sea lions, and walruses) (170), and even komodo dragons (171,172). The manifestation and pathological symptoms associated with Pasteurella infection, or "pasteurellosis," range from asymptomatic or mild chronic upper respiratory inflammation to acute, often fatal, pneumonic and/or disseminated disease.…”

A Pelagic Outbreak of Avian Cholera in North American Gulls: Scavenging as a Primary Mechanism for Transmission?

“…Avian cholera has affected several species of offshore seabird breeding colonies, including Amsterdam Albatross (Diomedea amsterdamensis) and Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos; Weimerskirch 2004), Cape Cormorants (Phalacrocorax capensis; Waller and Underhill 2007), Common Murres (Uria aalgae; Osterblom et al 2004), Adelie Pengins (Pygoscelis adeliae), Skuas (Stercorarius spp. ), Kelp Gulls (Larus dominicanus; Leotta et al 2006), and one Southern Giant Petrel (Macronectes gigantus; Leotta et al 2003). Marine birds are also affected outside the breeding season, but this is infrequent (Christensen et al 1997;Bodenstein et al 2015).…”