Journal
JOURNAL OF HELMINTHOLOGY
Volume 87, Issue 1, Pages 17-23Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0022149X11000721
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Funding
- Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica [PICT 34412/05]
- Wildlife Health Fund of the Field Veterinary Program (Wildlife Conservation Society)
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Acanthocephalans can be pathogenic helminths of marine birds. Every year during the breeding season, there is variable mortality among prefledged chicks from the largest known Olrog's gull (Larus atlanticus) colony. Mortality has been associated with infection by the acanthocephalan Profilicollis chasmagnathi. Our aim was to study the role of chicks' size as a risk factor for intensity of infection and severe pathology, and to expand upon previous pathological findings reported in acanthocephalan-infected chicks. Size of the chick was associated with intensity of infection and number of intestinal perforations, which increased by 6.9% and 4.1%, respectively, for each millimetre increment in chick size. Infection was associated with inflammatory enteritis and granulomatous peritonitis. Complete intestinal perforations were observed in 85% and 97.3% of the studied chicks in 2005 and 2006, respectively, and they were observed very early during the post-hatching period. Our results show: (1) the presence of advanced pathology associated with acanthocephalan infections in chicks, beginning very early in the post-hatching period; and (2) significant increases in the intensity of infection and the associated pathology as a function of size of chicks, in dead chicks during this period.
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