In the report, Hideshige Takada and colleagues explain that existing methods for taking samples from living birds have sharply limited efforts to monitor PCB levels. Blood sampling, for instance, requires trained personnel and subjects birds — especially chicks and small adults — to potentially fatal stress. Collection of bird droppings is noninvasive, but droppings must be refrigerated and shipped to a testing lab.
Researchers long have eyed oil secreted from the preen gland (located at the base of the tail feathers), which birds use to waterproof feathers and ward off parasites. However, data validating preen oil’s usefulness had been available for only a single species of bird. In the new study, scientists report extending that knowledge to 13 species. “This could dramatically increase the availability of seabird samples,” the study states. “The combination of this technology in ecological research with POP analysis of preen oil will increase our knowledge of the global distribution and transport of POPs, their ecological impact, and the ecology and behaviors of seabirds.”-American Chemical Society
