Global change is contributing to unprecedented expansions of infectious diseases in wildlife. Recurrent avian cholera outbreaks are causing dramatic chick mortality and population decline in endangered albatross colonies on Amsterdam Island, a critical seabird breeding ground in the Southern Indian Ocean. We manufactured a killed vaccine using a Pasteurella multocida strain isolated from a dead albatross in the field. We used this same bacterial strain to establish a serological assay allowing the monitoring of antibody levels following bird vaccination. Using this vaccine on chicks 2 weeks posthatching caused 100% seroconversion and reduced the death risk by a factor exceeding 2.5, raising fledging probability from 14% to 46%. These results suggest that using a specifically tailored vaccine could be a key tool to effectively protect endangered seabirds from disease outbreaks threatening them with extinction.

中文翻译：

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疫苗接种可保护濒危信天翁雏鸡免受霍乱

全球变化正在推动野生生物传染病的空前扩张。反复发生的禽霍乱疫情在南部印度洋的重要海鸟繁殖地阿姆斯特丹岛的濒危信天翁殖民地中引起严重的雏鸡死亡和种群下降。我们使用多杀巴斯德氏菌生产了一种灭活疫苗从田间死信天翁分离的菌株。我们使用相同的细菌菌株建立了血清学检测方法，可以在禽类疫苗接种后监测抗体水平。在孵化后两周对雏鸡使用这种疫苗可引起100％的血清转化，并将死亡风险降低2.5倍以上，使出雏率从14％提高到46％。这些结果表明，使用专门定制的疫苗可能是有效保护濒临灭绝的海鸟免受疾病暴发威胁的关键工具。