Risks for red kites (Milvus milvus) during winter holidays

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la 12th Conference of the European Wildlife Disease Association (EWDA), celebrada en Berlin (Alemania) del 26 al 31 de agosto de 2016.
The decline of red kite (Milvus milvus) populations across Southem and Central Europe has been attributed mostly to pesticide and rodenticide exposure, changes in landuse, carrion, rubbish availability, direct persecution and pathogens. In this context, feeding si tes for resident or wintering carrion eaters are of high value but do also create conflict, as the aggregation of individuals at these feeding sites and the exposure to dead livestock could promote pathogen transmission. Capture events of wild birds for tagging purposes are unique opportunities to carry out targeted disease and bealth surveillance. We used samples from wintering red kites captured at the Binaced feeding station in three different migration stages (auturnn, wintering and spring migration) during three wintering seasons: 2013- 2014 (n =52), 2014-2015 (n =59) and 2015-2016 (n = 69) to explore exposure of these birds to different avian and shared pathogens. No antibodies against West Ni1e Virus were found until the 2015/2016 wintering season (89.6 %, 60 of 67). Meanwbile a decreasing prevalence of antibodies against Avian Influenza Virus (AIV) pattem has been observed in the last wintering season (x2 = 6.904, p = 0.032, df = 2; 2013 - 2014 = 10.4 %, 5 of 48; 2014 -2015 = 8.8%, 5 of 57 and 2015-2016 =0%, 0O of 67). Five of 180 red kites carried Salmonella sp. in their intestinal flora. Higher prevalences of Gentamycin (x2 = 14.868, p = 0.001, df= 2) and Enrofloxacin Ci= 31.213, p