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- Title
Factors influencing mortality of Lesser Scaup ( Aythya affinis) ducklings during a West Nile virus outbreak.
- Authors
Gurney, K.E.B.; Clark, R.G.; Curry, P.S.
- Abstract
Temporal variation in exposure and (or) susceptibility to disease-causing agents may result in changing disease risks for offspring of seasonally reproducing organisms. Although increases in disease risk and disease-related mortality have been observed during the course of the breeding cycle in some systems, the extent to which this is a generalized ecological pattern remains uncertain. We obtained data during an outbreak of West Nile virus (WNV) associated mortality in 50 semicaptive Lesser Scaup ( Aythya affinis (Eyton, 1838)) ducklings and used known-fate survival models to assess whether daily survival rate (DSR) was related to age, hatch date, immunogenic challenge, vector abundance, and risk of WNV infection. Ducklings produced late in the breeding cycle had lower survival probabilities, relative to earlier conspecifics, but the best predictor of DSR was relative risk, suggesting that reduced survival of late-hatched individuals may have been related to increasing exposure to WNV-infected vectors.
- Subjects
BIRD mortality; DISEASE susceptibility; LESSER scaup; WEST Nile fever; BIRD diseases; REPRODUCTION
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 2014, Vol 92, Issue 4, p365
- ISSN
0008-4301
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1139/cjz-2013-0258