Congress named Poultry days was held in Šibenik, Croatia between 11th and 14th May 2011. A paper titled “Zero prevalence of avian influenza in yelkouan shearwater, Puffinus yelkouan, in Lastovo archipelago, Croatia” was presented. Among others, authors of the paper are Ivan Budinski and Vedran Lucić, both employees of the NGO BIOM and Luka Jurinović, a longtime member.

Paper is available for download, and we bring here the summary and the key words.

Zero prevalence of avian influenza in yelkouan shearwater, Puffinus yelkouan, in Lastovo archipelago, Croatia

Luka Jurinović*, Vladimir Savić*, Mirta Balenović*, Vedran Lucić**, Ivan Budinski**

*Poultry Centre, Croatian Veterinary Institute, Heinzelova 55, Zagreb, Croatia
**Association BIOM, Zagreb, Croatia

Summary:

The paper presents the first systematic study of avian influenza in tubenoses in Europe. Yelkouan Shearwaters were captured in colonies on Lastovo archipelago. Cloacal swabs were collected from all the birds (104) and sera samples were collected from adults only (80). The swabs were tested by virus isolation in chicken embryos and the sera were tested using commercial ELISA kit. During two breeding seasons, all of the samples were negative for the presence of avian influenza. We assume that one of the limiting factors for spreading of the virus among the birds is the relatively small population of these birds in Croatia. Further investigations, on both tubenoses and sea gulls, which could serve as a possible source of avian influenza infection, are needed to understand the ecology of avian influenza in tubenoses in the Adriatic.

Key words: Avian influenza, Procellariiformes, tubenoses, Puffinus yelkouan, Yelkouan Shearwater, Lastovo