Bacterial, Viral and Parasitic Infections in Antarctic Seabirds

南极大陆由于地理位置偏远，环境极端，与人类的影响相对隔绝。人类与非洲大陆的第一次接触是由19世纪的探险家和海豹人完成的，随后是20世纪的探险家和科学家。在过去的三十年里，通过旅游业，人类在南极洲的存在有所增加。一个令人担忧的问题是，由于人类存在的增加，可能会在南极洲引入野生动物疾病。野生鸟类容易感染一系列传染病和寄生虫病，但临床症状相对明显，通常在死后才能诊断出疾病。由于缺乏关于疾病本身以及什么是正常的，什么是病理的信息，野生南极鸟类的疾病诊断受到了阻碍。在南极洲观察到的死亡病例很少，可以归因于疾病。很少有临床研究对健康的禽类进行采样。到目前为止，研究已经证实了南极企鹅体内存在感染性病原体，但病理还没有得到证实，病原体的来源也没有得到证实。除了通过人类传入的可能性外，南极夜蛾也是南极环境中疾病传入的有力候选者。Skuas是清道夫和捕食者，它们经常出现在车站和船只附近，并在殖民地捕食企鹅和其他鸟类。更重要的是，斯夸亚在冬季迁徙到南极洲以外的地方。这项用于探索性研究的小额赠款将检查之前收集的企鹅和Skuas的血液样本，以确定细菌和病毒疾病、寄生虫以及对感染性病原体的抗体的存在。与澳大利亚科学家一起，将建立一个血清以及病毒、细菌和寄生虫的参考集合。这将为未来南极洲野生动物疾病的研究提供有价值的基线。

The Antarctic continent has been relatively isolated from human impact due to its remote location and extreme environment. The first human contact with the continent was made by explorers and sealers of the nineteenth century's who were followed by explorers and scientists of the twentieth century. In the past thirty years, there has been an increase in human presence in Antarctica through tourism. A concern has been the potential introduction of wildlife diseases in Antarctica through the increase in human presence. Birds in the wild are susceptible to an array of infectious and parasitic diseases, but clinical signs of disease are relatively obvious and disease is generally diagnosed post mortem. The diagnosis of disease in Antarctic birds in the wild is hampered by the lack of information on both the diseases themselves and on what is normal and what is pathological. There are few cases in Antarctica where die-offs have been observed and could be attributed to disease. Few clinical investigations have sampled healthy birds. Research to date has confirmed the presence of infectious agents in Antarctic penguins, but pathology has not been confirmed, nor has the source of the agents. Besides the potential of introduction via humans, the South Polar skua is a strong candidate as a source of introduction of disease in the Antarctic environment. Skuas are scavengers and predators, which frequent the vicinity of stations and ships and prey on penguins and other birds at colony sites. More significantly, skuas migrate outside Antarctica during the winter. This Small Grant for Exploratory Research will examine previously collected blood samples of both penguins and skuas to determine the presence of bacteria and viral diseases, parasites, and antibodies to infectious agents. In conjunction with Australia scientists, a reference collection of sera as well as viruses, bacteria, and parasites will be established. This will provide a valuable baseline for future studies of wildlife diseases in Antarctica.