Transcriptomics assessment of environmental (non-target) antibiotic exposure on wildlife health
Nucleated red blood cells in non-mammalian vertebrates provide transcriptionally active material for identifying and analyzing potentially active genes. Due to evolutionary features such as nucleated red cells, blood transcriptomics can be a powerful tool to assess birds physiology. Compared to traditional animal toxicological lethal animal experiments, non-lethal techniques such as blood transcriptomics have many advantages, like minimization of intraspecific variability and multiple comparison options due to repeated sampling. This research aimed to experimentally evaluate potential direct effects on the health of godwits caused by non-target antibiotics unintentionally released into the environment from salmon farming located near godwits' feeding sites