Cargando…
Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl
BACKGROUND: Radiation cataracts develop as a consequence of the effects of ionizing radiation on the development of the lens of the eye with an opaque lens reducing or eliminating the ability to see. Therefore, we would expect cataracts to be associated with reduced fitness in free-living animals. M...
Autores principales: | , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3728354/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23935827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066939 |
_version_ | 1782278848953450496 |
---|---|
author | Mousseau, Timothy Alexander Møller, Anders Pape |
author_facet | Mousseau, Timothy Alexander Møller, Anders Pape |
author_sort | Mousseau, Timothy Alexander |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Radiation cataracts develop as a consequence of the effects of ionizing radiation on the development of the lens of the eye with an opaque lens reducing or eliminating the ability to see. Therefore, we would expect cataracts to be associated with reduced fitness in free-living animals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the incidence of lens opacities typical of cataracts in more than 1100 free-living birds in the Chernobyl region in relation to background radiation. The incidence of cataracts increased with level of background radiation both in analyses based on a dichotomous score and in analyses of continuous scores of intensity of cataracts. The odds ratio per unit change in the regressor was 0.722 (95% CI 0.648, 0.804), which was less than odds ratios from investigations of radiation cataracts in humans. The relatively small odds ratio may be due to increased mortality in birds with cataracts. We found a stronger negative relationship between bird abundance and background radiation when the frequency of cataracts was higher, but also a direct effect of radiation on abundance, suggesting that radiation indirectly affects abundance negatively through an increase in the frequency of cataracts in bird populations, but also through direct effects of radiation on other diseases, food abundance and interactions with other species. There was no increase in incidence of cataracts with increasing age, suggesting that yearlings and older individuals were similarly affected as is typical of radiation cataract. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that cataracts are an under-estimated cause of morbidity in free-living birds and, by inference, other vertebrates in areas contaminated with radioactive materials. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3728354 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-37283542013-08-09 Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl Mousseau, Timothy Alexander Møller, Anders Pape PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Radiation cataracts develop as a consequence of the effects of ionizing radiation on the development of the lens of the eye with an opaque lens reducing or eliminating the ability to see. Therefore, we would expect cataracts to be associated with reduced fitness in free-living animals. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We investigated the incidence of lens opacities typical of cataracts in more than 1100 free-living birds in the Chernobyl region in relation to background radiation. The incidence of cataracts increased with level of background radiation both in analyses based on a dichotomous score and in analyses of continuous scores of intensity of cataracts. The odds ratio per unit change in the regressor was 0.722 (95% CI 0.648, 0.804), which was less than odds ratios from investigations of radiation cataracts in humans. The relatively small odds ratio may be due to increased mortality in birds with cataracts. We found a stronger negative relationship between bird abundance and background radiation when the frequency of cataracts was higher, but also a direct effect of radiation on abundance, suggesting that radiation indirectly affects abundance negatively through an increase in the frequency of cataracts in bird populations, but also through direct effects of radiation on other diseases, food abundance and interactions with other species. There was no increase in incidence of cataracts with increasing age, suggesting that yearlings and older individuals were similarly affected as is typical of radiation cataract. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings suggest that cataracts are an under-estimated cause of morbidity in free-living birds and, by inference, other vertebrates in areas contaminated with radioactive materials. Public Library of Science 2013-07-30 /pmc/articles/PMC3728354/ /pubmed/23935827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066939 Text en © 2013 Møller, Mousseau http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Mousseau, Timothy Alexander Møller, Anders Pape Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title | Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title_full | Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title_fullStr | Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title_full_unstemmed | Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title_short | Elevated Frequency of Cataracts in Birds from Chernobyl |
title_sort | elevated frequency of cataracts in birds from chernobyl |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3728354/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23935827 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066939 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT mousseautimothyalexander elevatedfrequencyofcataractsinbirdsfromchernobyl AT mølleranderspape elevatedfrequencyofcataractsinbirdsfromchernobyl |