Seabirds mortality during the 1992-1993 winter along the Belgian coast

During the 1992-1993 133 seabirds found on Belgian beaches were necropsied. Most frequent species were the guillemot (Uria aalge), the oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus), the kittiwake (Rissa tridactyla), the razorbill (Alca torda) and the herring gull (Larus argentatus). The three main observations were, in decreasing order, cachexia, acute and hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, and oil contamination of plumage and intestinal tract. The pelagic origin of seabirds was associated with all 3 observations; oil contamination was associated with acute gastro-enteritis and cachexia and, finally, the immature character was associated with cachexia. A hypothetical mechanism of death would be oiled pelagic seabirds that become cachectic and die of acute gastroenteritis. It is unlikely that seabirds act as a reservoir for bacteria, that were only occasionally identified in our material. Therefore, it appears that infectious agents play a minor role in seabirds stranding