Climate change: Impact on dispersal of poultry diseases

A Canadian study at the University of Guelph looked at the effects of climate change on avian migratory patterns and the dispersal of commercial poultry diseases in the country.

By: CD Patterson and MT Guerin

Many birds are able to modify migratory strategies when selection favours an adjustment. Climate change is provoking a range of responses from avian migrants and affecting their relationship with other biological systems.

This is the first part of a two-part review that aims to summarise the available literature on the impact of climate change on migratory birds and how those changes will subsequently affect the spread of poultry diseases.

Part I reviews the effects of climate change on the ecology of avian migrants; it was found that climate change has evoked several changes in birds, including changes in avian phenology, poleward shifts in avian distributions, modification of migratory distances, direction and activity, and alterations to movement patterns and destinations.

Current predictions for future climatic trends will continue to favour changes in avian migratory strategies and behaviour, emphasising the importance of investigating how these adjustments will affect the relationship between avian migrants and bird-borne pathogens.