Belews Lake, North Carolina, was contaminated by selenium in wastewater released from a coal-fired electric generating facility during 1974-1985. Selenium bioaccumulated in aquatic food chains and caused severe reproductive failure and teratogenic deformities in fish. Beginning in 1986, the electric utility company changed its ash disposal practices and selenium-laden wastewater no longer enter...

We detected a high prevalence (12.5%) of novel avian coronaviruses in aquatic wild birds. Phylogenetic analyses of these coronaviruses suggest that there is a diversity of gammacoronaviruses and deltacoronaviruses circulating in birds. Gammacoronaviruses were found predominantly in Anseriformes birds, whereas deltacoronaviruses could be detected in Ciconiiformes, Pelecaniformes, and Anseriforme...

Influenza A viruses exist within their natural host, aquatic birds, in a number of antigenic subtypes. Only a few of these subtypes have successfully crossed into other avian and mammalian hosts. This brief review will focus on just three examples of viruses that have successfully passed between species; avian H5NI1 and H9N2 viruses and H3N2 viruses which have transmitted from aquatic birds to ...

Uses Background Concentrations Environmental Chemistry General Chemical Properties Mode of Action Fate in Soils and Water Lethal and Sublethal Effects General Terrestrial Plants and Invertebrates Aquatic Organisms Birds Mammals Recommendations Acknowledgments References Tables Number 1 Paraquat concentrations in field collections of selected organisms and nonbiological materials 2 Chemical and ...

Mercury at low concentrations represents a major hazard to microorganisms. Inorganic mercury has been reported to produce harmful effects at 5 microg/l in a culture medium. Organomercury compounds can exert the same effect at concentrations 10 times lower than this. The organic forms of mercury are generally more toxic to aquatic organisms and birds than the inorganic forms. Aquatic plants are ...

Lake Chapala is the largest tropical lake in Mexico. The objectives of this study were to determine bioaccumulation of Hg in fish and to evaluate the potential impacts of Hg in the diet of aquatic birds, particularly the American white pelican (AWPE), in Lake Chapala. Hg concentrations in three fish species ranged from 0.021 to 0.568 μg/g wet weight. Mercury in fish was positively and significa...

Volatile methylsiloxanes (VMSs) and organophosphate esters (OPEs) are two suites of chemicals that are of environmental concern as organic contaminants, but little is known about the exposure of wildlife to these contaminants, particularly in birds, in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The present study investigates the spatial distributions of nine cyclic and linear VMSs and 17 OPEs in the e...

Olfactory receptors (ORs) govern a prime sensory function. Extant birds have distinct olfactory abilities, but the molecular mechanisms underlining diversification and specialization remain mostly unknown. We explored OR diversity in 48 phylogenetic and ecologically diverse birds and 2 reptiles (alligator and green sea turtle). OR subgenomes showed species- and lineage-specific variation relate...

Many plant seeds and invertebrates can survive passage through the digestive system of birds, which may lead to long distance dispersal (endozoochory) in case of prolonged retention by moving vectors. Endozoochorous dispersal by waterbirds has nowadays been documented for many aquatic plant seeds, algae and dormant life stages of aquatic invertebrates. Anecdotal information indicates that endoz...

Influenza A H10N7 virus with a hemagglutinin gene of North American origin was detected in Australian chickens and poultry abattoir workers in New South Wales, Australia, in 2010 and in chickens in Queensland, Australia, on a mixed chicken and domestic duck farm in 2012. We investigated their genomic origins by sequencing full and partial genomes of H10 viruses isolated from wild aquatic birds ...