Bacterial, Viral and Parasitic Infections in Antarctic Seabirds

南极大陆由于其偏远的地理位置和极端的环境，相对远离人类的影响。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猎人完成的，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，南极洲的人类存在有所增加。一个令人关切的问题是，由于人类活动的增加，南极洲可能会出现野生动物疾病。野生鸟类易患一系列传染病和寄生虫病，但疾病的临床症状相对明显，通常在死后才诊断出疾病。由于缺乏关于疾病本身以及什么是正常的、什么是病态的信息，对南极野生鸟类疾病的诊断受到了阻碍。在南极洲，观察到的可归因于疾病的死亡病例很少。很少有临床研究对健康的鸟类进行取样。 迄今为止的研究已证实南极企鹅体内存在传染性病原体，但病理学尚未得到证实，病原体的来源也未得到证实。除了通过人类传播的可能性外，南极贼鸥是南极环境中疾病传播的一个强有力的候选来源。贼鸥是食腐动物和掠食者，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，贼鸥在冬季迁徙到南极洲以外。这项探索性研究的小额赠款将检查以前收集的企鹅和贼鸥的血液样本，以确定细菌和病毒性疾病，寄生虫和感染因子抗体的存在。与澳大利亚科学家合作，将建立血清以及病毒、细菌和寄生虫的参考收集。这将为今后研究南极洲野生动物疾病提供宝贵的基线。

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.