Connectivity dynamics in Irish mudflats between microorganisms including Vibrio spp., common cockles Cerastoderma edule, and shorebirds

Albuixech-Martí, Sara; Lynch, Sharon A.; Culloty, Sarah C.

Connectivity dynamics in Irish mudflats between microorganisms including Vibrio spp., common cockles Cerastoderma edule, and shorebirds

dc.contributor.author	Albuixech-Martí, Sara
dc.contributor.author	Lynch, Sharon A.
dc.contributor.author	Culloty, Sarah C.
dc.contributor.funder	European Regional Development Fund	en
dc.date.accessioned	2021-12-03T10:16:59Z
dc.date.available	2021-12-03T10:16:59Z
dc.date.issued	2021-11-12
dc.date.updated	2021-12-03T10:03:42Z
dc.description.abstract	Shellfish, including the key species the common cockle Cerastoderma edule, living and feeding in waters contaminated by infectious agents can accumulate them within their tissues. It is unknown if microbial pathogens and microparasites can subsequently be transmitted via concomitant predation to their consumers, including shorebirds. The objective of this study was to assess if pathogens associated with C. edule could be detected seasonally in the faeces of shorebirds that feed on C. edule and in the physical environment (sediment) in which C. edule reside, along the Irish and Celtic Seas. Two potentially pathogenic global groups, Vibrio and Haplosporidia, were detected in C. edule. Although Haplosporidia were not detected in the bird faeces nor in the sediment, identical strains of Vibrio splendidus were detected in C. edule and bird faecal samples at sites where the oystercatcher Haematopus ostralegus and other waders were observed to be feeding on cockles. Vibrio spp. prevalence was seasonal and increased in C. edule and bird faecal samples during the warmer months, possibly due to higher seawater temperatures that promote the replication of this bacteria. The sediment samples showed an overall higher prevalence of Vibrio spp. than the bird faecal and C. edule samples, and its detection remained consistently high through the sites and throughout the seasons, which further supports the role of the sediment as a Vibrio reservoir. Our findings shed light on the fact that not all pathogen groups are transmitted from prey to predator via feeding but bacteria such as V. splendidus can be. As most of the wading birds observed in this study are migratory, the results also indicate the potential for this bacterium to be dispersed over greater geographic distances, which will have consequences for areas where it may be introduced.	en
dc.description.sponsorship	European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (Bluefish (Grant Agreement No. 80991) Project, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Ireland Wales Co-operation Programme)	en
dc.description.status	Peer reviewed	en
dc.description.version	Published Version	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.articleid	22159	en
dc.identifier.citation	Albuixech-Marti, S., Lynch, S. A. and Culloty, S. C. (2021) 'Connectivity dynamics in Irish mudflats between microorganisms including Vibrio spp., common cockles Cerastoderma edule, and shorebirds', Scientific Reports, 11 (1), 22159 (16 pp). doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01610-x	en
dc.identifier.doi	10.1038/s41598-021-01610-x	en
dc.identifier.endpage	16	en
dc.identifier.issn	2045-2322
dc.identifier.issued	1	en
dc.identifier.journaltitle	Scientific Reports	en
dc.identifier.startpage	1	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10468/12305
dc.identifier.volume	11	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.publisher	Springer Nature	en
dc.rights	© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.	en
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	en
dc.subject	Perkinsus	en
dc.subject	Haplosporida	en
dc.subject	Marteilia	en
dc.subject	Mudflats	en
dc.subject	Shellfish	en
dc.subject	Bacterial infection	en
dc.subject	Community ecology	en
dc.subject	Marine biology	en
dc.title	Connectivity dynamics in Irish mudflats between microorganisms including Vibrio spp., common cockles Cerastoderma edule, and shorebirds	en
dc.type	Article (peer-reviewed)	en