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Multi-year serological evaluation of three viral agents in the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) on Ross Island, Antarctica

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Abstract

Serological assays are commonly used in wildlife health studies to screen for exposure of an individual or a population to infectious agents. Such assays can therefore provide useful information regarding the health status of an individual or for determining the prevalence of a pathogen within a population. In this study, serological assays of three viral agents have been conducted on the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) on Ross Island, Ross Sea, Antarctica. We sampled adult Adélie Penguins during three consecutive summer breeding seasons (2010–2011, 2011–2012 and 2012–2013), and tested those samples for antibodies to avian influenza A virus, Newcastle disease virus, and infectious bursal disease virus. No antibodies were detected for avian influenza A virus in any season. Two samples in 2012–2013 were positive for Newcastle disease virus antibodies and a total of 10 samples were positive for infectious bursal disease virus antibodies during this study. This information establishes baseline data for these three viruses in Adélie Penguins at this location and can be used for future comparisons of disease prevalence in this population.

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Data availability

Information regarding all the samples used in this study (bird identification number, colony location, date collected, test results) can be found in Online Resource 1, ESM_1.xlsx.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by New Zealand’s Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) under project C09X0510, “Protecting the Ross Sea Ecosystem”; a New Zealand Ministry of Science and Innovation grant, C01X1001; and a University of Otago Postgraduate Scholarship to WG. Funding for the serology tests was provided by MBIE Core Funding to Landcare Research. Logistics for personnel at Cape Bird were provided by Antarctica New Zealand. Sampling at Cape Crozier was funded by the US National Science Foundation Grant ANT-0944411, with logistics supplied by the U.S. Antarctic Program, permit ACA 2011-002. Helpful comments to improve this manuscript were provided by Dan Tompkins Landcare Research and two anonymous reviewers. We thank especially Elizabeth Porzig, Scott Jennings and Annie Pollard for their help with sampling at Cape Crozier and Catriona MacLeod and Amy Whitehead, both from Landcare Research, for collecting blood samples at Cape Bird North in 2010–2011. A very special thanks to Keven Drew, Landcare Research, whose help was invaluable with the fieldwork at Cape Bird for seasons 2011–2012 and 2012–2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, 9054, New Zealand

    Wray Grimaldi

  2. H.T. Harvey and Associates Ecological Consultants, Los Gatos, CA, 95032, USA

    David G. Ainley

  3. School of Environmental Sciences, Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, 2640, Australia

    Melanie Massaro

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  1. Wray Grimaldi
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  2. David G. Ainley
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Correspondence to Wray Grimaldi.

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Conflict of interest

Permits to capture and handle Adélie Penguins on Ross Island were conducted under Landcare Research Animal Ethics Permit 10/09/01, Animal Care Use Permit 4130 from Oregon State University. and the US Antarctic Conservation Act, permit 2010-002. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Grimaldi, W., Ainley, D.G. & Massaro, M. Multi-year serological evaluation of three viral agents in the Adélie Penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) on Ross Island, Antarctica. Polar Biol 41, 2023–2031 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-018-2342-1

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