Prevalence of IgY antibodies against Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae in a critically endangered parrot (kakapo, Strigops habroptilus) and associated responses to vaccination

Figures & data

Figure 1. Timing of collection of post-vaccination kakapo serum samples (n = 236) relative to the first vaccination day. Each symbol represents a sample collected from an individual bird. Solid symbols indicate that booster vaccinations were administered on the same day that samples were collected.

Figure 2. Boxplot of the cOD₄₉₀ values of pre-vaccination kakapo serum samples (n = 71). The bold horizontal line indicates the median value, the box demarcates the 50% of data lying between the first and third quartiles and the whiskers indicate the range. Circles indicate outliers, defined as points ≥1.5 times the interquartile range from the upper or lower box margin. Text adjacent to circles indicates the name of the bird from which the serum sample was collected. Solid circles indicate birds that died of erysipelas in 2004.

Figure 3. Relationships between kakapo age and serum cOD₄₉₀ (a) 1 – 6 months post-hatching and (b) 3 – 30 months post-hatching. Solid circles indicate birds that died of erysipelas in 2004, squares indicate serum samples from birds that were hatched in an incubator and had no contact with adult kakapo. Text adjacent to data points indicates the names of birds from which the samples were collected.

Figure 4. Comparison of mean pre- and post-vaccination serum cOD₄₉₀ values. Bold horizontal lines indicate median values, boxes demarcate the 50% of data between the first and third quartiles and the whiskers are 1.5 times the interquartile range. Circles indicate outliers. The periods in which booster vaccinations were administered are shown in brackets. n = 11 for all groups. Abbreviations: pre-vax, pre-vaccination; 2^nd vax / 3^rd vax, second and third vaccinations.

Figure 5. Relationship between post-vaccination change in cOD₄₉₀ (i.e. ΔcOD₄₉₀) and pre-vaccination cOD₄₉₀ values in individual kakapo over four time periods post-vaccination. Each point represents data from an individual bird. Booster vaccinations were administered at (i) 14 – 46 days and (ii) 297 – 503 days after the first vaccination. P-values indicate the significance of the slope in each graph.