Diversity of helminths parasitising North-East Atlantic and Antarctic seabirds

Seabirds are largely used as indicators of Ocean health and are final hosts of several helminth parasites. However, the helminth fauna of seabirds is still poorly studied. Here, we quantified the diversity of gastrointestinal parasites in 52 individuals belonging to 10 seabird species with different habitat preferences and feeding strategies from the North-East Atlantic and Antarctica. Fresh carcasses were collected in Northern France and at Svarthamaren (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica), helminth parasites were extracted from the gastrointestinal tract, and were identified by morphological inspection and DNA barcoding. In total, we identified 13 helminth taxa. North-East Atlantic seabirds hosted parasites from four helminth groups (Acanthocephala, Cestoda, Nematoda, Trematoda), while Antarctic seabirds hosted Acanthocephala and Cestoda only. The largest parasite diversity was found in northern fulmars Fulmarus glacialis (9 species), European shags Gulosus aristotelis (5 species), razorbills Alca torda (4 species), and black-legged kittiwakes Rissa tridactyla (4 species). Co-infections with multiple parasite species in single hosts were common. Oceanic diving species were found to be the most parasite-poor, with common guillemots Uria aalge and Atlantic puffins Fratercula arctica hosting no parasites. In contrast, oceanic surface-feeding seabirds had a large parasite diversity, which notably included trematodes, and was comparable to that of coastal species. To the best of our knowledge, this study identified 9 new host-parasite associations: Andracantha sp. in northern fulmars and south polar skuas Stercorarius maccormicki, C. septentrionale in northern fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes, a species of Microphallidae in black-legged kittiwakes, Cardiocephaloides longicollis in European shags, Cryptocotyle lingua in Sandwich terns Thalasseus sandvicensis, and a clophyllidean species in south polar skuas and Antarctic petrels Thalassoica antarctica.