Project REMOVE_DISEASE

PUBLICATIONS

Lamb, J., Tornos, J., Dedet, R., Gantelet, H., Keck, N., Baron, J., Bely, M., Clessin, A., Flechet, A., Gamble, A. & Boulinier, T. 2023. Hanging out at the club: breeding status and territoriality affect individual space use, multi-species overlap, and pathogen exposure at a seabird colony. Functional Ecology 37, 576–590.

Boulinier, T. 2023. Avian influenza spread and seabird movements between colonies. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 38: 391-395.

Hashish, A., Johnson, T.J., Chundru, D., Williams, M.L., Sato, Y., Macedo, N.R., Clessin, A., Gantelet, H., Bost, C., Tornos., J., Gamble, A., Le Count, K.J., Ghanem, M., Boulinier, T. & El-Gazzar, M. 2023. Complete genome sequences of two Pasteurella multocida isolates from seabirds. Microbiological Resource Announcements 18:e0136522.

Zhong, J., Medvecky, M., Tornos, J., Clessin, A., Le Net, R., Gantelet, H., Gamble, A., Forde, T.L. & Boulinier, T. 2024. Genomic characterisation of a novel species of Erysipelothrix (E. amsterdamensis) associated with mortalities among endangered seabirds. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 74:006264.

Lisovski, S., Günther, A., Dewar, M., Ainley, D., Aldunate, F. Arce, R., Ballard, G., Bauer, S., Belliure, J., Banyard, A.C., Boulinier, T., Bennison, A., Cary, C., Catry, P., Clessin, A., Connan, M., Correia, E., Cox, A., Cristina, J., Braun, C., Elrod, M., Emerit, J., Ferreiro, I., Fowler, Z., Gamble, Granadeiro, J.P., A., Hurtado, J., Jongsomjit, D., Lesage, C., Kuepfer, A., Lejeune, M., Lescroël, A., Li, A., McDonald, I.R., Menéndez-Blázquez, J., Morandini, V., Moratorio, G., Militão, T., Moreno, P., Perbolianachis, P., Pennycook, J., Raslan, M., Reid, S.M., Richards-Babbage, R., Schmidt, A.E., Sander, M.M., Smyth, L., Soutullo, A., Stanworth, A., Tornos, J., Varsani, A., Herzschuh, U., Beer, M. & Wille, M. 2024. Unexpected delayed incursion of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 (clade 2.3.4.4b) in the Antarctic region. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 18: e70010.

Militao, T., Clessin, A., Gamble, A., Granadeiro, J.P., Boulinier, T. & Catry, P. 2024. Experimental evidence of high tick infestation limiting chick growth and survival in a colonial seabird. Scientific Report 14: 31694.

Bralet, T., Aaziz, R., Tornos, J., Gamble, A., Clessin, A., Lejeune, M., Galon, C., Michelet, L., Lesage, C., Jeanniard du Dot, T., Desoubeaux, G., Guyard, M., Delannoy, S., Moutailler, S., Laroucau, K. & Boulinier, T. 2025. High-throughput microfluidic real-time PCR as a promising tool in disease ecology. Journal of Animal Ecology 94: 1625-1637.

Clessin, A., Briand, F.-X., Tornos, J., Lejeune, M., De Pasquale, C.,  Fischer, R., Souchaud, F., Hirchaud, E., Hong, S.L., Bralet, T., Guinet, C., McMahon, C., Grasland, B., Baele, G. & Boulinier, T. 2025. Circumpolar spread of avian influenza H5N1 to southern Indian Ocean islands. Nature Communications 16: 8463.

Ferchiou, S., Tounsi, A., Fronton, F., Caza, F., Lejeune, M., Tornos, J., Boulinier, T., St-Pierre, Y. 2025. Circulating microbiome DNA in Southern Ocean seabirds: A novel tool for disease surveillance in polar ecosystems. Global Ecology and Conservation 62 : e03774.

Lejeune, M., Tornos, J., Bralet, T., De Pasquale, C., Marçon, E., Massin, P., Grasland, B., Stier, A. & Boulinier, T. 2026. Vaccination against H5 HP influenza virus leads to persistent immune response in wild king penguins. Nature Communications, accepted. Link to the Pre-print BioRxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.06.674613v1

DATA

Accessible with the published article and soon more to come

NEWS

May 2023 : News article on the web pages of Terres Australes et Antarctiques Françaises about the research and conservation management activities implemented on Amsterdam Island where albatrosses are threatened by infectious diseases and brown rats.

September 28th-29th 2023: Meeting “ECOPATHS and Co” about advancement of ongoing projects on the ecology of the circulation of infectious agents on islands of the Southern Ocean. Held at ANSES Maisons-Alfort.

October 17th 2023: Submission of mid-term report.

October 2023 – February 2024: Field seasons !

June-July 2024: The plan to eradicate rats and mice from Amsterdam Island was implemented by RECI‘s team. This will allow project REMOVE_DISEASE to document potential beneficial effects of the dynamics of infectious diseases affecting seabirds. Details in English about the implementation of the eradication are available as a note on ACAP web site, and in French see le DOC NATURE video on Brut.

September 2024: talks at the Seabird Group Conference, in Coimbra, and the Neobiata Conference, Lisboa, Portugal (by Paulo Catry, Thierry Boulinier, Augustin Clessin, Tristan Bralet et al.).

October/November 2024: High Pathogenicity Avian Influenza (HPAI) emerged on Southern Indian Ocean archipelagos, where it was responsible for die-offs of southern elephant seals and seabirds (Clessin et al. 2025 Nature Communications). Phylogenetic analyses showed that the virus arrived from South Georgia. The three field areas of REMOVE_DISEASE project, the Falkland Islands, Marion island, and the French Southern Lands, have been the subject of HPAI outbreaks, stressing the importance of the work conducted on infectious disease transmission at different spatiale scales and among seabirds and mammals.

January/February 2025: Fire on Amsterdam Island leading to the evuacation of all field personnel before the end of the yellow-nosed albatross breeding season, preventing the acquisition of key data at the usual time of avian cholera outbreaks.

December 2025: Field work eventually re-started on Amsterdam Island, with the potential to monitor the full chick rearing period of yellow-nosed albatross, in a potentially rat-free and avian cholera-free island. Results expected in March-April 2026 (Photo (c) Thierry Boulinier/IPEV/CNRS).

All field picture (c) Thierry Boulinier