Avian-botulism risk in waterbird breeding colonies and implications for environmental water management

Abstract

Avian botulism poses a significant risk to waterbird health in Australian wetlands. This paralytic, often fatal, disease occurs when birds ingest a neurotoxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum. Our current understanding of avian botulism comes largely from studies in the northern hemisphere, with many of these studies linking outbreaks of avian botulism with poor water quality. The Murray–Darling Basin provides the most important breeding habitat for colonial waterbirds in Australia, but the frequency of large-scale breeding events has declined, and waterbird populations are near record-low numbers. Avian botulism has the capacity to have significant impacts on waterbird recruitment if not managed appropriately. We propose that environmental water-management strategies that aim to maintain water quality through flow delivery to waterbird colonies could mitigate the risk of botulism outbreaks and contribute to waterbird population recovery.

Confirmation of botulism diagnosis in Australian bird samples by ELISA and RT rtPCR

“…Botulism outbreaks caused by botulinum type E toxin have never been reported in Australia, and the presence of the organism in Australia is debatable. 9 Our study indicated that samples of gastrointestinal content and liver are good sources of toxin. Similar observations were made by others with and without the use of pre-enrichment culture.…”

Evaluación de humedales someros tropicales semiáridos asociados al botulismo aviar

“…En otros humedales someros tropicales donde la eutrofización y las altas temperaturas han ocasionado brotes de botulismo aviar, se ha logrado controlar el brote aumentando el nivel del agua; esto disminuye la temperatura, además de la carga de nitrógeno y fósforo, por lo que ya no hay condiciones ideales para la reproducción de la toxina (Brandis et al, 2020;Son et al, 2018). Esta estrategia no es posible en los presentes sitios de estudio, ya que no existe una fuente de agua permanente cerca.…”

Women in freshwater science: challenges and solutions for achieving equity

“…Two papers develop new conceptual frameworks: one a model of the effect of mass fish-kills on consumers of fish in aquatic streams (McGinness et al 2020) and the other developing a method to place individual management actions (here, environmental watering actions) in a broader spatial and temporal context to identify possible barriers to achieving long-term objectives (Lester et al 2020). Finally, four other pieces explore broader aspects of women in freshwater science: the challenges associated with being a woman in tropical peatland research (Thornton et al 2020), highlight past contributions to freshwater science by women that have been largely overlooked (Downes and Lancaster 2020;Waterton et al 2020), explore the gender bias in measures of research quality and output (Downes and Lancaster 2020), and raise awareness of the risk of avian botulism and identify appropriate management strategies (Brandis et al 2020). As a whole, this Special Issue highlights the breadth and quality of current and past research by women in freshwater science at all stages of their careers.…”