HPAIV outbreak triggers short-term colony connectivity in a seabird metapopulation

Jeglinski, J. W.E. , Lane, J. V., Votier, S. C., Furness, R. W., Hamer, K. C., McCafferty, D. J. , Nager, R. G. , Sheddan, M., Wanless, S. and Matthiopoulos, J. (2024) HPAIV outbreak triggers short-term colony connectivity in a seabird metapopulation. Scientific Reports, 14, 3126. (doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53550-x) (PMID:38326368) (PMCID:PMC10850054)

Abstract

Disease outbreaks can drastically disturb the environment of surviving animals, but the behavioural, ecological, and epidemiological consequences of disease-driven disturbance are poorly understood. Here, we show that an outbreak of High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus (HPAIV) coincided with unprecedented short-term behavioural changes in Northern gannets (Morus bassanus). Breeding gannets show characteristically strong fidelity to their nest sites and foraging areas (2015–2019; n = 120), but during the 2022 HPAIV outbreak, GPS-tagged gannets instigated long-distance movements beyond well-documented previous ranges and the first ever recorded visits of GPS-tagged adults to other gannet breeding colonies. Our findings suggest that the HPAIV outbreak triggered changes in space use patterns of exposed individuals that amplified the epidemiological connectivity among colonies and may generate super-spreader events that accelerate disease transmission across the metapopulation. Such self-propagating transmission from and towards high density animal aggregations may explain the unexpectedly rapid pan-European spread of HPAIV in the gannet.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was funded by NERC urgency grant NE/X013502/1 and part-funded by the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment BEIS OESEA program. Equipment for this study was funded through the Nature Restoration Fund to the Scottish Seabird Centre.
• Keywords: Avian influenza, bio-logging, conservation, disease ecology, information centre, metapopulation, Morus bassanus, pathogen spread, seabird, super-spreading events.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Furness, Professor Robert and Matthiopoulos, Professor Jason and Nager, Dr Ruedi and McCafferty, Dr Dominic and Jeglinski, Dr Jana
• Authors: Jeglinski, J. W.E., Lane, J. V., Votier, S. C., Furness, R. W., Hamer, K. C., McCafferty, D. J., Nager, R. G., Sheddan, M., Wanless, S., and Matthiopoulos, J.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: Scientific Reports
• Publisher: Nature Research
• ISSN: 2045-2322
• ISSN (Online): 2045-2322
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Scientific Reports 14: 3126
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
318922		Population-level impact and geographic spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus H5N1 outbreak in gannets.	Jason Matthiopoulos	Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)	RES921815	SBOHVM - Ecology & Environmental Change