Essential Site Maintenance: Authorea-powered sites will be updated circa 15:00-17:00 Eastern on Tuesday 5 November.
There should be no interruption to normal services, but please contact us at [email protected] in case you face any issues.

loading page

HPAIV outbreak triggers long-distance movements in breeding Northern gannets -- implications for disease spread
  • +7
  • Jana Jeglinski,
  • Jude Lane,
  • Stephen Votier,
  • Robert Furness,
  • Keith Hamer,
  • Dominic McCafferty,
  • Ruedi Nager,
  • Maggie Sheddan,
  • Sarah Wanless,
  • Jason Matthiopoulos
Jana Jeglinski
University of Glasgow

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Jude Lane
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Author Profile
Stephen Votier
Heriot-Watt University School of Energy Geoscience Infrastructure and Society
Author Profile
Robert Furness
MacArthur Green
Author Profile
Keith Hamer
University of Leeds
Author Profile
Dominic McCafferty
University of Glasgow
Author Profile
Ruedi Nager
University of Glasgow
Author Profile
Maggie Sheddan
Scottish Seabird Centre
Author Profile
Sarah Wanless
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Author Profile
Jason Matthiopoulos
University of Glasgow
Author Profile

Abstract

Animal movement is a fundamental driver of disease spread. We show that an outbreak of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) is coincident with unprecedented behavioural changes in GPS tracked Northern gannets. Previously characterised by strong fidelity to their nest sites and foraging areas (2015 – 2019; n = 120), breeding gannets tracked before, during and after the 2022 outbreak showed half of ten birds stopped transmitting and most likely died, while the survivors instigated unusual long-distance movements. Two adults visited one - three other gannetries – the first such incidence of prospecting in this age class. Our findings suggest the HPAIV outbreak triggered changes in space use patterns of possibly infected 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 rapid pan-European spread of HPAIV in the gannet.