A Disease of Manx Shearwaters: Further Observations in the Field

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Abstract
Puffinosis epizootics among juvenile Puffinus puffinus on the island of Skomer in 1948 and 1949 are described. The course of the disease in the juvenile shearwater is described and it is concluded that the case fatality rate is over 75% and that the disease most commonly progresses to death in 3 to 4 days. The higher incidence of the disease in certain areas in 1948 as compared with 1949 is attributed to the wet summer and the very dense cover present in the former year. It is concluded that the disease can only reach epizootic proportions in an area where the population density of birds is high, and where crowding is accentuated by thick cover on the ground. Evidence is presented that puffinosis may also be a disease of gulls, and that the original cases in a shearwater epizootic may acquire the disease from sick gulls.

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