Julieta Campagna monitors coastal protected areas for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
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An unprecedented avian flu outbreak in Argentine Patagonia devastated a stable elephant seal colony, highlighting the rising threat of infectious disease to wildlife in a warming world.
By Claudio Campagna, Julieta Campagna and Valeria Falabella in Environment | Earth Food Life Project | English
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Julieta Campagna runs coastal protected area monitoring for the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Argentina, focusing on marine mammals like elephant seals, and is a key researcher involved in investigating the devastating 2023 avian flu outbreak that killed thousands of them at Peninsula Valdés. She is a marine biologist who documented the unprecedented seal mortality and studies the virus's adaptation to marine mammals, contributing to critical research for WCS and the broader scientific community.
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Epidemiological Data of an Influenza A/H5N1 Outbreak in Elephant Seals in Argentina Indicates Mammal-to-Mammal Transmission
Co-authors: Marcela M. Uhart, Ralph E. T. Vanstreels, Martha I. Nelson, Valeria Olivera, Victoria Zavattieri, Philippe Lemey, Claudio Campagna, Valeria Falabella and Agustina Rimondi | Nature Communications | November | 2024
Since 2022, the H5N1 avian influenza virus has caused the death of thousands of marine mammals in South America. A major outbreak occurred in southern elephant seals in Argentina in October 2023. This study reports on the virus’s spread among both seals and dead terns, birds found in the same area.
Researchers analyzed the full genome of the virus and found that the viruses affecting marine mammals and terns in Argentina form a unique group that also includes viruses from Peru, Chile, Brazil, and Uruguay. These viruses share mutations that help them adapt to mammals, suggesting the virus is spreading between mammals and occasionally to birds. This finding indicates that H5N1 is evolving and becoming more flexible in infecting mammals, which could have serious consequences for wildlife, humans, and livestock globally.
Publications by this author
A Functional Approach to Understanding Elephant Seal Habitat Use in the Argentine Basin
Co-authors: Nadège Fonvieille, Christophe Guinet, Martin Saraceno, Baptiste Picard, Martin Tournier, Pauline Goulet, Claudio Campagna and David Nerini | Progress in Oceanography | September | 2023
Southern elephant seals are becoming important for studying ocean ecosystems, especially with new technology that helps scientists collect data from challenging environments. These seals, known for their large size and ability to dive deep, are helping us understand how ocean features like temperature and salinity affect marine life.
This study explored the feeding habits of five female elephant seals in the Southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Using advanced methods, like Functional Data Analysis (FDA) and model-based clustering, scientists studied ocean conditions and identified areas where the seals were most likely to hunt. The seals preferred to feed at the meeting point of four “Functional Oceanographic Domains” (FODs), sites where prey tended to congregate.
The study shows that mixing ocean features create productive areas for feeding, and the FDA method is a powerful tool to analyze complex ocean data. This research not only improves our understanding of seal behavior but also has broader applications for studying ocean ecosystems and how animals interact with their environments.Co-authors: Mirtha N. Lewis, Victoria González Carman, Claudio Campagna, Christophe Guinet, Mark Johnson, Randall W. Davis, Diego H. Rodríguez and Mark A. Hindell | Marine Mammal Science | December | 2020
Elephant seals are a species with different energetic needs based on age and sex, and they forage in various ocean environments. In southern elephant seals (M. leonina), populations around sub-Antarctic regions show resource partitioning due to deep, narrow continental shelves.
In contrast, seals from Península Valdés, Argentina, live in a shallow, productive, temperate shelf environment. Researchers tracked 98 elephant seals over 20 years and found that males and females use different habitats based on age. Juvenile males preferred shallow areas, while older males used deeper shelf breaks. Juvenile females stuck to the shelf, while adult females foraged in distant waters. Males, especially, showed more concentrated feeding patterns, likely due to preferences for specific habitats and prey.
These findings suggest that elephant seals across different regions have similar foraging habits based on age and sex, even though their habitats vary significantly.
