Detailed monitoring of a small but recovering population reveals sublethal effects of disease and unexpected interactions with supplemental feeding

Autor: Donal Smith, Paquita Hoeck, Aurelie Chowrimootoo, Heather Richards, Simon Tollington, Jim J. Groombridge, Vikash Tatayah, Andrew Greenwood, Carl G. Jones
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2015
Předmět:
0106 biological sciences
Circovirus
Conservation of Natural Resources
Standard Paper
Population
Endangered species
supplementary feeding
Zoology
QH75
ecological immunology
Disease
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
03 medical and health sciences
psittacine beak and feather disease
disease ecology
Animals
14. Life underwater
Circoviridae Infections
education
Psittacula
Ecology
Evolution
Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
QL
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
biology
Reproductive success
Ecology
Bird Diseases
Reproduction
Endangered Species
Outbreak
15. Life on land
Parasite and Disease Ecology
biology.organism_classification
3. Good health
Diet
generalized linear mixed models
Infectious disease (medical specialty)
reproductive success
Threatened species
Mauritius
Animal Science and Zoology
Genetic Fitness
Zdroj: The Journal of Animal Ecology
ISSN: 1365-2656
0021-8790
Popis: Summary 1. Infectious diseases are widely recognized to have substantial impact on wildlife populations. These impacts are sometimes exacerbated in small endangered populations, and therefore, the success of conservation reintroductions to aid the recovery of such species can be seriously threatened by outbreaks of infectious disease. Intensive management strategies associated with conservation reintroductions can further compound these negative effects in such populations. 2. Exploring the sublethal effects of disease outbreaks among natural populations is challenging and requires longitudinal, individual life-history data on patterns of reproductive success and other indicators of individual fitness. 3. Long-term monitoring data concerning detailed reproductive information of the reintroduced Mauritius parakeet (Psittacula echo) population collected before, during and after a disease outbreak was investigated. 4. Deleterious effects of an outbreak of beak and feather disease virus (BFDV) were revealed on hatch success, but these effects were remarkably short-lived and disproportionately associated with breeding pairs which took supplemental food. Individual BFDV infection status was not predicted by any genetic, environmental or conservation management factors and was not associated with any of our measures of immune function, perhaps suggesting immunological impairment. Experimental immunostimulation using the PHA (phytohaemagglutinin assay) challenge technique did, however, provoke a significant cellular immune response. 5. We illustrate the resilience of this bottlenecked and once critically endangered, island-endemic species to an epidemic outbreak of BFDV and highlight the value of systematic monitoring in revealing inconspicuous but nonetheless substantial ecological interactions. Our study demonstrates that the emergence of such an infectious disease in a population ordinarily associated with increased susceptibility does not necessarily lead to deleterious impacts on population growth and that negative effects on reproductive fitness can be short-lived.
Databáze: OpenAIRE
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