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1 College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 4700 Hillsborough Street, Raleigh, North Carolina 27606, USA
2 US Geological Survey, National Wildlife Health Center, 6006 Schroeder Road, Madison, Wisconsin 53711, USA
4 Corresponding author (email: emi.k.saito{at}aphis.usda.gov)
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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Although most immunocompetent birds exhibit no clinical signs, those that do typically die. Clinical signs can include rapid breathing, neurologic dysfunction, drooping wings, diarrhea, ruffled feathers, severe lethargy, and arthritis (Friend and Franson, 1999). Gross lesions of affected birds may include: yellow, caseous nodules or plaques in the esophagus; a swollen, crumbly liver with nodules or spots; and pale, fibrinous material adhered to the intestinal lining (Mikaelian, et al., 1997; Friend and Franson, 1999). Bacterial culture to isolate and identify species and serovar of Salmonella may also be utilized to definitively diagnose disease.
Since the 1980s, the US Geological Survey National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) has maintained a database that houses information on wildlife mortality events that have occurred throughout the United States, both those investigated by the NWHC and those reported by collaborating wildlife officials and other laboratories. The database can be used to track mortality events temporally, geographically, and by species, enabling wildlife managers to, among other things, make important decisions on disease control and prevention and to determine areas of future scientific investigation. The data collected include locations, dates, species involved, pertinent history, number sick and dead, and available diagnostic information. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the role of Salmonella spp. in avian wildlife mortality events and to identify spatial and temporal trends of avian wildlife mortality events involving Salmonella spp. from 1985 through 2004.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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| RESULTS |
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Passerines represented seven of the top 10 species involved in Salmonella-related events, and relative to all causes of mortality events, salmonellosis was a great contributor to mortality in these species (Table 1
). Proportional mortality, by order, revealed that Salmonella was involved in 21.5% of all passerine mortality events (Fig 1
).
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The multivariate analysis identified some significant spatial and temporal associations between Salmonella-related events and proportional mortality. The annual trend over the 20-year period showed a 12% increase in the proportional mortality (95% confidence interval =8–16%; Fig. 2
). Although events occurred year-round, seasonality trends of event onset were also identified. Events involving passerines increased in November through May, with a peak in January, while events involving colonial nesting birds and waterfowl increased from June through August, with a peak in July. When adjusted for both the annual trend and the monthly fluctuations in reporting, peaks were identified for January and April (Fig. 3
).
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| DISCUSSION |
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Since data in the epizootic database were mostly obtained through passive reporting, there is the potential for reporting bias to affect the results. Mortality events entered into the database are limited to those in which a formal investigation was performed and to those for which an authoritative source could confirm the reports. In addition, no standard protocol is followed for reporting or investigating wildlife mortality events (ProMed-mail 1998 and 2000). The inconsistency includes the variety of possible methods in which the salmonellosis diagnosis may have been made: based on gross necropsy lesions; culture of specific tissues or lesions; and the amount of laboratory diagnostic assays performed for sub-typing. In recent years, there were a number of bird feeder-related mortality events in the United States attributed to salmonellosis, but laboratory confirmation of the etiology of the mortality was not always clear (ProMed-mail, 1998, 2005a, 2005b). In addition, some bird species may be more likely to be reported (i.e., are more easily identified, more aesthetically valued). By standardizing the reported number of Salmonella-related events across each factor of interest with the reported number of mortality events from all causes, the potential effects of reporting bias have been reduced in this study. Nonetheless, the importance of salmonellosis in wild bird populations is likely underestimated, as this study included only reports in which Salmonella spp. infection was considered to have caused, or played an important role in, the wild bird mortality events, but did not include all events in which Salmonella spp. infection may have been detected but not deemed to have been the cause of the mortality events.
Although not statistically significant when adjusted for year, month of onset, and flyway, spatial analyses identified two FWS regions of the country with increased proportional mortality: the Southeast and Mountain-Prairie. In addition, contrary to the whole region, individual states of the Northeast also were found to have an increased proportional mortality. For many of the states in these areas, the increased proportional mortality may be explained by significant human population growth over the 20-year study period and the resulting pressures on wildlife populations. Expansion of human populations, and the correlated increased urbanization leading to decreased wildlife habitat, may increase contact between birds and thereby increase opportunities for disease spread. Another explanation is that the observed spatial trends are confounded by species distribution, and the areas with increased proportional mortality simply provide the habitat for the species most commonly affected. The popularity of bird feeders and feeding areas in now-residential areas may serve as a major factor, both in promoting spread of disease within certain species and in detecting wild bird mortality events. Additional investigation is necessary to better explore these observed trends.
No obvious reason could be found to explain the decrease in proportional mortality in 1999, relative to preceding and following years, as shown in Fig. 2
. Further investigation into environmental data, including climate and other factors, is needed for a better understanding of the observed difference. In addition, it does not appear that the arrival and rapid spread of West Nile virus (WNV) into the continental United States affected the proportional mortality subsequent to 1999. However, for this analysis, we did not include among our mortality events the reports of dead wild birds to the national WNV surveillance program; they were excluded because of the differences in data collection and reporting, wherein the reported WNV-surveillance mortality was not defined in the same manner as the other mortality events in the database. Because of the broad surveillance program, and the manner in which the data were reported and recorded, it would have been difficult, inefficient, and inaccurate to attempt to separate the annual database information into separate reports that would correctly represent each reporting geographic region and the number of times each state was affected.
The observed seasonality is similar to that reported previously for birds in North America and in several European countries. Although salmonellosis-related mortality events in wild birds in the United States have been summarized previously (Friend and Franson, 1999; Hudson et al., 2000), this is the first known report that presents long-term data to support the generally accepted epidemiology. In Norway, outbreaks occur primarily in the winter, with peak occurrence in February and March (Refsum et al., 2003). In Great Britain, finch mortality due to salmonellosis mostly occurred from January through March, while that of House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) occurred from October through March (Pennycott et al., 2006). However, as evidenced by our findings, mortality events involving salmonellosis may occur year-round, as has been reported in New Zealand (Alley et al., 2002), Norway (Refsum et al., 2003), and the Canadian Atlantic provinces (Daoust et al., 2000).
The increase in passerine mortality, due to salmonellosis during the winter months, may represent a true increase. However, almost two thirds of the reports in passerines were mortality events occurring near bird feeders, and it is possible that because of environmental conditions, including limited availability of food in many areas, feeders may be used mostly in the winter. This may lead to increased observation and subsequently increased probability of detection during this time. The seasonality of events in colonial nesting birds is likely related to the population density of the birds and the increase in the susceptible population during the nesting season (Friend and Franson, 1999).
Because wild birds can act as inapparent carriers, the potential public health impacts of salmonellosis may be underestimated. Human Salmonella outbreaks have been potentially linked to direct and indirect contact with wild birds (Penfold et al., 1979; Kramer et al., 1996; Kapperud et al., 1998; Tauni and Österlund, 2000; Alley et al., 2002; Refsum et al., 2002; Nesse et al., 2005; Palmegren et al., 2006). Surveillance of wild bird populations and investigation of wild bird mortality events may yield useful information in characterizing and reducing human risk of wild bird-related salmonellosis. Genotype and antibiotic resistence patterns of Salmonella isolates from free-ranging wild birds in the southeastern United States suggest the strains found in wild birds are a potential threat to human populations (Hudson et al., 2000). More studies are needed to explore the potential of using wild birds as sentinels and to identify any potential public health risks posed by this wild bird disease.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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Received for publication 2 July 2007.
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