title: Use of wildlife rehabilitation centres in pathogen surveillance: A case study in white storks (Ciconia ciconia).
abstract: More than 70% of new human pathogens are zoonotic and many originate from the wildlife reservoir. Wildlife rehabilitation centres (WRC) are an easily accessible source for sample and data collection for preventive surveillance, but data collected this way may be biased. We use white storks (Ciconia ciconia) as a model to compare pathogen prevalence obtained in the field and WRC. We address factors that may affect disease prevalence data like origin, the age group and the "diseased" state of WRC admissions. In this study we compared prevalence of Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. in the digestive tract; antibodies against West Nile virus, avian influenza and Newcastle disease virus, and antimicrobial resistance patterns of E. coli between nestling and adult wild storks established in different habitats (n=90) and storks admitted to two different WRC (n=30) in the same region. When age groups and colonies of origin were disregarded, the mean enterobacteria (E. coli, Salmonella) and viral antibody prevalence of the wild population (n=90) were similar to prevalence observed in the individuals admitted to WRC (n=30). However, in fledgling juvenile storks admitted to WRC, the prevalence of Salmonella spp. (13.3%), E. coli showing resistance to cefotaxime (37.9%) and against two antimicrobials at once (41.4%) were more similar to the prevalence in stork nestlings from landfill-associated colonies (7.9%, 37.1% and 48.6%, respectively for prevalence of Salmonella spp. and E. coli displaying, cefotaxime resistance and resistance against two antimicrobials), and significantly higher than in colonies located in natural habitats (0%; 10.5% and 15.8%, respectively). Thus, pathogen surveillance in individuals from an abundant species admitted to WRC is useful to monitor overall mean prevalence, but for certain pathogens may not be sufficient to detect differences between local populations. In addition, the ecology of the tested species and the specific temporal, spatial and age group distribution of WRC admissions have to be taken into account.
authors.affiliation: SaBio Working Group, Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain. Electronic address: Mariacruz.Camacho@uclm.es.
authors.forename: MariaCruz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Camacho
authors.affiliation: Plaza de España, Ciudad Real, Spain. Electronic address: jmhdez@telefonica.net.
authors.forename: Jose Manuel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.affiliation: SaBio Working Group, Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain. Electronic address: josefranvet@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jose Francisco
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Lima-Barbero
authors.affiliation: SaBio Working Group, Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC (CSIC-UCLM-JCCM), Ronda de Toledo 12, 13005 Ciudad Real, Spain. Electronic address: Ursula.Hofle@uclm.es.
authors.forename: Ursula
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Höfle
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000835:Animals, Wild; D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D046091:Charadriiformes; D024901:Drug Resistance, Multiple, Bacterial; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D004927:Escherichia coli Infections / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D005585:Influenza in Birds / Q000453:epidemiology; D009522:Newcastle disease virus / Q000302:isolation & purification; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012475:Salmonella / Q000187:drug effects / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014902:West Nile virus / Q000302:isolation & purification
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral
keywords: Antimicrobial resistance; Enterobacteriaceae; Landfills; Surveillance; White stork; Wildlife rehabilitation centre