Chlamydia psittaci in Fulmars on The Faroe Islands : A Causative Link to South American Psittacines Eight Decades After a Severe Epidemic

A psittacosis epidemic linked to fulmar hunting occurred on the Faroe Islands in the 1930s. This study investigates a plausible explanation to the 20% human mortality in this outbreak. Phylogenetic analysis showed that C. psittaci isolated from fulmars were closely related to the highly virulent 6BC...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microbes and Infection
Main Authors: Wang, Helen, Jensen, Jens-Kjeld, Olsson, Anna, Vorimore, Fabien, Aaziz, Rachid, Guy, Lionel, Ellström, Patrik, Laroucau, Karine, Herrmann, Björn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för medicinsk biokemi och mikrobiologi 2020
Subjects:
Infectious Medicine
Infektionsmedicin
Faroe Islands
Fulmar
Online Access:http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-406266
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micinf.2020.02.007
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Summary:A psittacosis epidemic linked to fulmar hunting occurred on the Faroe Islands in the 1930s. This study investigates a plausible explanation to the 20% human mortality in this outbreak. Phylogenetic analysis showed that C. psittaci isolated from fulmars were closely related to the highly virulent 6BC strains from psittacines and is compatible with an acquisition by fulmars of an ancestor of the 6BC clade in the 1930s. This supports the hypothesis that the outbreak on the Faroe Islands started after naïve fulmars acquired C. psittaci from infected dead parrots thrown overboard when shipped to Europe in the 1930s.

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