Causes of mortality of albatrosses, petrels and shearwaters stranded in north-eastern Brazil

Daniela Mariani (Programa de Pós Graduação em Medicina Veterinária, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil) and colleagues have published in the journal Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira on 1347 beached seabirds in north-eastern Brazil, including three albatross species, two Procellaria petrel species and most abundantly shearwaters Ardenna and Puffinus.

The paper’s abstract follows:

“The aim of this work was to determine the main species of stranded seabirds at the Northeastern coast of Brazil in addition to the most frequent causes of stranding and mortality.  The study was conducted in a monitored area for three years (2012-2014), from the coastline of south Alagoas through north coast of Bahia encompassing 254 km of coast.  The seabirds found alive during the monitoring were sent to rehabilitation, clinically examined and the carcasses were removed, necropsied and histopathologically analyzed. A total of 1347 seabirds were found stranded.  Of these, 378 were found alive and sent to rehabilitation.  From the 969 dead seabirds 806 were unsuitable for necropsy, being only 163 submitted to necropsy and histopathological analysis.  Calonectris borealis, Puffinus gravis and Puffinus puffinus were the main seabirds stranded in the studied area.  Most stranding occurred from March to June with an increase during April and May for the most species of seabirds.  The main clinical signs of stranded seabirds consisted of inappetence, apathy, low body score, hypothermia, flying or movement difficulty and prolonged recumbency.  Natural causes followed by infectious diseases and anthropogenic environmental factors were the main causes of death of seabirds stranded on the Northeastern coast of Brazil.”

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatross - one of the beached species

Reference:

Mariani, D.B.,  Almeida, B.J.M.,  Febrônio, A.D.M.,  Vergara-Parente, J.E. & Souza^, F.A.L. 2019.  Causes of mortality of seabirds stranded at the Northeastern coast of Brazil.  Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira doi.org/10.1590/1678-5150-pvb-5812.

John Cooper, ACAP Information Officer, xx October 2019