• Medientyp: E-Artikel
  • Titel: The potential effects of repeated outbreaks of phocine distemper among harbour seals: a response to Harding et al. (2002)
  • Beteiligte: Lonergan, Mike; Harwood, John
  • Erschienen: Wiley, 2003
  • Erschienen in: Ecology Letters, 6 (2003) 10, Seite 889-893
  • Sprache: Englisch
  • DOI: 10.1046/j.1461-0248.2003.00510.x
  • ISSN: 1461-023X; 1461-0248
  • Entstehung:
  • Anmerkungen:
  • Beschreibung: AbstractIn 2002 phocine distemper virus (PDV) reappeared in the European harbour seal (Phoca vitulina) population. This outbreak seems to have followed a similar pattern to the 1988 one which killed almost 60% of individuals in most localities. Harding et al. (2002) suggested that there is a relatively high (18%) risk that recurrent outbreaks of PDV could reduce the European harbour seal population by 90%. We show that incorporating the effects of observation error during population surveys and of the long‐term immunity of survivors of morbillivirus outbreaks indicate a much lower level of risk (<1%). This suggests that, while the immediate effects of the disease are dramatic, it is unlikely that recurrent epidemics will pose serious conservation problems for this species under current conditions.