Does contemporary premature feather loss among common tern chicks in Lake Ontario reflect persistent pollutants, enigmatic diseases or novel pathogens?
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Ecology, Marine Biology, Toxicology, Virology, Public Health
- Keywords
- contaminants, feather loss, nutritional stress, premature moult, avian virus, PCBs, pathogens, mercury, induced moult
- Copyright
- © 2015 Arnold et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ PrePrints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2015. Does contemporary premature feather loss among common tern chicks in Lake Ontario reflect persistent pollutants, enigmatic diseases or novel pathogens? PeerJ PrePrints 3:e1196v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1196v1
Abstract
We observed premature feather loss (PFL) among common terns Sterna hirundo at a small colony in northern Lake Ontario, Canada in July 2014. This condition is characterized by affected chicks losing all their wing, tail, head and body feathers several weeks after hatching. Rarely observed in wild birds, to our knowledge PFL in terns has not been recorded since 1974 (despite the banding of tens of thousands of tern chicks across North America since then). In July 2014, we observed PFL in chicks at between 2 and 4 weeks of age. The extent of feather loss was more extreme than in previous reports but was not accompanied by other aberrant developmental or physical deformities. Complete feather loss occurred over a period of a few days but all affected chicks quickly began to grow replacement feathers and all but one most likely fledged 10-20 days after normal fledging age. Feather samples, both shed feathers and re-growing live feathers, were collected from both affected chicks and normal individuals. One subsequently dead PFL chick was collected. Samples are awaiting further analysis. There was striking temporal association between the onset of PFL and persistent strong southwesterly winds that caused extensive mixing of near-shore, surface water with cool, deep lake waters. To our current knowledge it seems most probable that the PFL we observed in 2014 was caused by pathogens (viruses, bacteria, algal toxins) welling up from these deep waters along the shoreline but a direct link has not yet been made. The re-emergence of PFL in common terns may indicate acute health risks for birds and other wildlife in the Lake Ontario region and may also have potential for human health risks.
Author Comment
This is version 1 of the preprint. We are urgently seeking input from the scientific community about (1) similar, unusual phenomenon among wildlife of Lake Ontario in July 2014 or other events further afield, (2) advice on potential analytical approaches for current samples and sampling protocols and funding sources for any future PFL manifestations, and (3) other possible events in early July 2014 in Lake Ontario that may explain the reemergence of PFL among common tern chicks.
Supplemental Information
Raw data underlying results in the manuscript
Contains the following:Summaries of weather data downloaded from Environment Canada (see paper and detailed links for more details about each metric);Data for measurements of mass and wing for PFL chicks and mass for normally developing chicks at Gull Island in 2014 ;Daily wing (maximum wing chord) growth rates for PFL chicks and matched controls ;Daily tail (maximum length of longest outer tail feather) growth rates for PFL chicks and matched controls ;Measurements of mass (g) of chicks different ages (days) through development used in construction of composite growth curves from 8 PFL chicks and 159 control chicks at Gull Island in 2014 ;Notes taken on the condition of chicks and the progression of PFL for the eight PFL chicks.
