Greater Sage-Grouse survival varies with breeding season events in West Nile virus non-outbreak years
| Autor: | Lindsey A. Parsons, Geoffrey P. Vincent, Andrew J. Gregory, Jonathan A. Jenks, Travis J Runia |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
West Nile virus animal diseases viruses 030231 tropical medicine virus diseases Outbreak Zoology medicine.disease_cause 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences nervous system diseases 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Geography Seasonal breeder medicine Animal Science and Zoology Sage grouse Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics |
| Zdroj: | Ornithological Applications. 123 |
| ISSN: | 2732-4621 0010-5422 |
| DOI: | 10.1093/ornithapp/duab002 |
| Popis: | Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is a species of conservation concern and is highly susceptible to mortality from West Nile virus (WNV). Culex tarsalis, a mosquito species, is the suspected primary vector for transmitting WNV to sage-grouse. We captured, radio-tagged, and monitored female sage-grouse to estimate breeding season (April 15 to September 15) survival, 2016–2017. Deceased sage-grouse were tested for active WNV; live-captured and hunter-harvested sage-grouse were tested for WNV antibody titers. Additionally, we trapped mosquitoes with CO2-baited traps 4 nights per week (542 trap nights) to estimate WNV minimum infection rate (MIR). Eight sage-grouse mortalities occurred during the WNV seasons of 2016 and 2017, 5 had recoverable tissue, and 1 of 5 tested positive for WNV infection. Survival varied temporally with sage-grouse biological seasons, not WNV seasonality. Survival was 0.68 (95% CI: 0.56–0.78; n = 74) during the reproductive season (April 1 to September 15). Mammalian predators were the leading suspected cause of mortality (40%), followed by unknown cause (25%), avian predation (15%), unknown predation (15%), and WNV (5%). These results indicate WNV was not a significant driver of adult sage-grouse survival during this study. Three sage-grouse (1.9%; 95% CI: 0.5–5.9%) contained WNV antibodies. We captured 12,472 mosquitoes of which 3,933 (32%) were C. tarsalis. The estimated WNV MIR of C. tarsalis during 2016 and 2017 was 3.3 and 1.6, respectively. Our results suggest sage-grouse in South Dakota have limited exposure to WNV, and WNV was not a significant source of sage-grouse mortality in South Dakota during 2016 and 2017. Based on our finding that a majority of sage-grouse in South Dakota are susceptible to WNV infection, WNV could potentially have an impact on the population during an epizootic event; however, when WNV is at or near-endemic levels, it appears to have little impact on sage-grouse survival. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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