The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

"Plasticosis" in shearwaters: Researchers discover disease in seabirds caused by garbage

2023-03-05T10:42:58.257Z


The digestive tract of birds becomes inflamed, young animals die: Scientists describe a serious illness in shearwaters caused by plastic floating in the sea. Other birds may also be affected.


Enlarge image

Image of a Pale-footed Shearwater

Photo: Eric Dunens / dpa

A team of researchers has discovered a new disease specifically caused by plastic parts in certain seabirds.

The disease, known as "plasticosis" (English original: "plasticosis"), has been identified for the first time, but this may only be "the tip of the iceberg", said the London Natural History Museum.

Pale-footed shearwaters from Australia's Lord Howe Island were studied.

Instead of being caused by viruses or bacteria, the disease is caused by small pieces of plastic that lead to inflammation in the digestive tract, according to the museum.

Over time, such prolonged and repeated inflammation leads to scarring and tissue deformation, which in turn impacts the animals' growth, digestion and survival, the researchers write.

In some chicks, the worst-case scenario is that the disease can cause the birds to starve because their stomachs fill up with indigestible plastic.

Severely damaged digestive tract

According to a statement from the museum, curator and bird expert Alex Bond, who published his findings with colleagues in the "Journal of Hazardous Materials", said: "It is the first time that stomach tissue has been examined in this way and it can be shown that that eating plastic can severely damage the digestive system of these birds.” The disease is thought to occur in other species as well.

Impacts on human health are also possible.

Bond and his colleagues have been studying seabirds on Australia's Lord Howe Island, some 600 kilometers off the coast of the continent, for the past few years.

They also found that the local pale-footed shearwaters are among the most plastic-contaminated birds in the world.

They mistake plastic parts for food and eat them consciously.

This also led the team to look more closely at the effects on the digestive tract.

beb/dpa

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2023-03-05

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-23T05:03:57.472Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.